CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 12 July)—The Narciso Ramos Highway and the Wao-Kalilangan Highway were rendered impassable Friday because of the floods and a landslide brought by incessant rains.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Lanao del Sur (PDRRMO-LDS) announced at 6:40 p.m. that flood has blocked traffic along the Narciso Ramos Highway in the vicinity of barangays Lalabuan and Macao in the Balabagan, a coastal municipality of Lanao del Sur, is not passable due to flooding. The highway connects Cotabato City to Marawi City and Lanao del Sur, as well as Zamboanga del Sur.
A video posted on Facebook showed that parts of the Narciso Ramos Highway have turned into a river of water and warning motorists not to travel.
PDRRMO-LDS also announced at 9:45 p.m. that the Wao-Kalilangan Highway, which connects Lanao del Sur and Bukidnon, is temporarily not passable due to a landslide that took place in Barangay Kilikili in Wao.
Rescuers and Philippine Marines worked over time to look for five children were declared missing in Matanog town, Maguindanao del Norte after heavy rains turned the Narciso Ramos Highway and nearby mountain gullies into rivers of mud Tuesday night, said Nyll Isaiah Tapia, of the Office of Civil Defense in the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao (OCD-BARMM).
The bodies of Norhaina Butil, 11, and her three-year-old sister Norhaine were found by the rescuers Friday morning in Barangay Campo Uno in Matanog, OCD-BARMM said.
Tapia said a total of five persons, including Norhaina and Norhaine, were confirmed dead in Matanog and nearby municipalities of Balabagan, Malabang, Kapatagan and Marugong in the adjacent province of Lanao del Sur
Rescuers are still looking for three other siblings of Norhaina and Norhaine who were swept away by the flash floods that started Tuesday night.
In Kapatagan Lanao del Sur, the body of an 18-year-old male identified as Baby Nor Raba was found in Barangay Kabaniakawan Friday morning, Tapia said.
Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, BARMM police director, said police rescuers are still looking for two sisters identified as Shiela and Ela Abullah, both grade school students, who were swept away by the flash flood that destroyed their house in Barangay Molimok in Balabagan.
The PAGASA weather bureau said these parts of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte would continue to be impacted with heavy rains until Saturday.
The PDRRMO-LDS has deployed bulldozers, excavators and dump trucks to clear the affected highways.
PAGASA’s Mindanao office, in its heavy rainfall warning issued 8:40 p.m. Friday, has raised an orange warning level in Bukidnon, both Lanao provinces, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay. An orange warning level means s “flooding is threatening in low-lying areas and landslides in mountainous areas.”
PDRRMC-LDS chief Shaminoden Sambitory said 4,900 families from 82 barangays have evacuated to higher ground while town officials reported 665 houses were damaged by the flash floods. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
