Cotabato town flash floods damage hits P35 million

KIDAPAWAN CITY — The flash floods that swept through agricultural enclaves in President Roxas town in Cotabato last week destroyed no less than P35 million worth of infrastructure and crops, officials announced Monday.

Two women drowned in rampaging floodwaters that displaced 1, 494 families according to the local police and officials of the President Roxas local government unit.

President Roxas Mayor Jonathan Mahimpit confirmed on Monday that they have reopened the stretches of a highway in the municipality that got blocked with mud and rocks that cascaded from a hill, loosened by heavy downpours.

“So immense were the damages wrought by the flashfloods that hit parts of our municipality but we will bounce back via multi-sector efforts,” Mahimpit said.

Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza, chair of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said her administration will support the post-calamity rehabilitation efforts of the President Roxas LGU.

Reports reaching Mendoza’s office showed that flashfloods also destroyed vast swaths of orchard, banana and corn farms in agricultural enclaves in the municipality, where most residents rely mainly on farming as a source of income.

Mahimpit, in his report to Mendoza’s office and the Department of Social Welfare and Development-12, said strong winds that battered their town amid heavy downpours also damaged 51 houses in different barangays.

Many of the families displaced by the calamity that hit President Roxas are now in houses of relatives while some are in makeshift evacuation sites.

A number of structures in the popular Skyline upland resort in the municipality were also damaged.

Loreto Cabaya, Jr., director of DSWD-12, said they have teams supporting the relief works of local officials for the calamity-stricken residents of  the Cotabato town. He said they have also provided the displaced families with initial relief provisions.