Flash floods send 700 Cebu City families fleeing their homes

CEBU CITY — Flash floods spawned by sudden torrential rains Friday night forced more than 700 families to flee their homes in low-lying areas here, and the issue about the city’s defective drainage system has cropped up again.

No casualties were reported in the flash floods, but councilor Gerardo Carillo, action officer of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council, said at least two families, one in Guadalupe and another in Kasambagan, lost their homes when rushing waters carried them away.

Virtually all houses affected by the floods sustained some form of damage as the waters rushed in and rose to varying heights.

At least five families in Banawa had the harrowing experience of being trapped inside their homes with the floodwaters reaching up to their necks.

Among the most severely affected areas, according to Carillo, were the barangays of Guadalupe, Labangon, Camputhaw and Kinasang-an. Waters in these areas rose up to about an average person’s height.

Carillo blamed the flash floods not only for the heavy volume of rainwater that fell steadily for about an hour starting at about 7 p.m. Friday, but also for the incapacity of the city’s drainage system to take all the water in.

Much of the drainage system is not only antiquated but is clogged with debris from indiscriminately disposed garbage.

Nearly the entire sitios of Bugnay 1 and 2 in Barangay Labangon, a large community of more than 300 families, were abandoned because of the swiftly rising waters.

Volunteers on rubber inflatable rafts helped rescue many of the residents.

Those who were displaced found shelter for the night in barangay halls, schools and gyms although virtually all of them began making it back to their homes in the morning to start the arduous task of cleaning up.

Landslides were also reported in some areas with the road going to the Buhisan Elementary School getting buried under tons of earth and rendered impassable.

Carillo said he would file a resolution declaring the affected barangays as calamity areas.

He said there is also a need to construct a comprehensive drainage system to solve the city’s flooding problem.

Councilor Gabriel Leyson said a study on the drainage system had actually been made and that a budget for drainage projects had in fact been appropriated, only that the funds were released on "piecemeal" basis.

The local development council had reportedly set aside funds, amounting to P16.4 million, for drainage projects under the city’s Annual Investment Plan for 2003. — Freeman News Service