Disease outbreak feared in Northern Mindanao

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Authorities fear that a disease outbreak might erupt in various evacuation centers in Northern Mindanao where floods caused by heavy rains brought by the tail-end of a cold front has so far displaced more than 138,000 people.

This, as a dengue case was reported yesterday in an evacuation center in Gingoog City, which, together with the cities of Cagayan and Iligan, is hard-hit by flooding.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who chairs the National Disaster Coordinating Council, tried to fly to Gingoog yesterday but failed to make it due to the inclement weather.

Carmelo Lupo, regional head of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), said the floods have destroyed more than P100 million worth of infrastructure, livelihood and agricultural crops in the past two weeks.

In a briefing, Lupo told Teodoro and Misamis Oriental Gov. Oscar Moreno that the number of evacuees and the flood damage are still going up.

The OCD said the nationwide death toll from floods and landslides has risen to 17, as rescuers recovered six more bodies in a village near Bislig City and in the Agusan River basin, while a man and a woman drowned when two boats capsized off Surigao City.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau has also alerted residents of at least 166 villages in Central Mindanao on possible flash floods and landslides that the continuous heavy rainfall might trigger.

The United Nations’ World Food Program said it will provide the government up to 630 metric tons of rice for some 25,000 flood-hit families in Northern Mindanao for about a month.

The social welfare department itself has already provided P1.83 million worth of relief aid to Regions 5, 8, 10, 11 and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Elsewhere, nine towns in Catanduanes have been placed were under a state of calamity due to floods and massive landslides.

In Albay, Navy personnel rescued 49 passengers and crewmen of a boat that was in danger of capsizing at the Legazpi City port.

At least 15 fishermen, meanwhile, were rescued after floating for nine hours when their vessel sank in the Davao Gulf. – Helen Flores, Ramil Bajo, Ben Serrano, Edith Regalado, Cet Dematera and James Mananghaya