DAVAO CITY — Seven people including an elderly were killed as of Monday December 26, due to continous heavy downpour in various areas in Misamis Occidental.
People were preparing for their Christmas celebration when floods hit their communities with a waist-high flood waters.
Governor Henry S. Oaminal in an interview with Newsline said the shear line caused the heavy downpour which triggered the floods and the landslides in hinterlands rendering some city roads and national highways impassable but as of this morning the major highways and roads have been cleared and passable.
“I am saddened by the death of seven people. There were those who refused to heed the call of their local government and the disaster teams for a preemptive evacuation and waited for the flood waters to get high before asking for help,” Oaminal said.
Six casualties were swept by the flood waters, of which two are from Clarin town, two are from municipalities of Sinakaban, two are from Jimenez town and; one from Tudela town, a senior citizen who was buried in a landslide.
“Early this morning many hard-headed were forced to leave their house, the roads from Ozamiz to Oroquita are now passable, the affected residents need cooked food something they can eat which we are providing now,” Oaminal added.
The governor said “This is the first time that we experienced this in our province, I am Praying that there will be no more casualties as we are continouosly monitoring the weather and we have standby food and medicine.
Oaminal is calling on the people of Misamis Occidental to be always vigilant, watchful and listen to the advise of their respective local government units.-Editha Z. Caduaya
