Floods sweep through Kidapawan villages

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Rampaging flashfloods swept through a dozen villages in Kidapawan City just before midnight Thursday, damaging houses and displacing more than 300 families.

Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista on Friday suspended classes in all schools in the city due to continuing downpours, feared to spawn more flashfloods.

Among the areas hit by flashfloods were riverside enclaves in the southeast of Kidapawan City, including the rearmost part of the compound of a leading broadcast outfit, Catholic station dxMS of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Kidapawan City is located at the foot of the forested Mt. Apo, the country’s highest peak, with an altitude of more than 10,000 feet above sea level. From there springs dozens of rivers that straddle through barangays in the city and surrounding North Cotabato towns.

The rivers criss-crossing Kidapawan City started to swell and overflow after dusk Thursday.

Psalmer Bernalte of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said volunteer rescue workers warned of floods at past 8 p.m. Thursday, after recording an alarming 40-millimeter hourly rainfall several hours before.

“The flashfloods came so quick that it caught people unprepared,” Raul Gratuito, a jockey of the Catholic FM station dxDM, which is also owned by the Oblate congregation.

Most of the families displaced by the floods spent the night at the Kidapawan City gymnasium and government buildings nearby.

Evangelista said the city’s social welfare and health personnel are now attending to the needs of the flood victims.