Backflow keeps 55 villages in CL under floodwater

By Freddie C. Velez and Franco G. Regala

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga -- — Despite sunny weather, backflow of floods in Nueva Ecija and Pampanga during super typhoon “Lawin” has now submerged 21 low-lying barangays (villages) in Calumpit, Bulacan and 34 more in the towns of Macabebe, San Luis, San Simon, and Apalit in Pampanga.

It was supposed to be a smiling sunny day in Calumpit Tuesday, but as residents stepped out of their homes they found themselves wading through flood with a height of 2 feet – and in some areas even four feet.

Car owners had to move their vehicles to high ground. The Calumpit-Hagonoy Road was impassable to light vehicles in the area of San Jose, Purok 1.

A natural catch basin in Central Luzon, Calumpit began to take in water from Nueva Ecija and Pampanga at 6 p.m. Sunday and by 6 a.m. yesterday, 21 villages of the town were already under water, said Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Liz Mungcal.

Governor Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado has already ordered the deployment of rescue teams to help stranded residents move to safer ground.

He said the initial number of families affected by the flooding was 14,439 or 68,190 individuals.

Alvarado said the PDRRMC is also monitoring Bulacan’s riverside areas of Hagonoy, Paombong, Plaridel and Pulilan as backflow from the Pampanga river system continues

The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council 3 (RDRRMC3) said floods also continued to torment 34 areas in Pampanga.

It said all 24 barangays in Macabebe were still experiencing between 1-foot and 1-foot-high flooding and so goes with three villages in San Luis; five in San Simon; and two in Apalit.