Philippine flood zone high-risk area
Geography, logging leave valleys vulnerable
The government’s geological hazard maps show why this farming community was largely washed away by a powerful typhoon: “highly susceptible to flooding and landslides.” That didn’t stop some villagers from rebuilding Thursday, even with bodies still lying under the mud.
Most of the more than 370 people confirmed dead from typhoon Bopha were killed in the steep mountain valley that includes New Bataan, a town criss-crossed by rivers and cleared from lush hillsides by banana, coconut, cocoa and mango farmers in 1968. Flooding was so widespread here that places people thought were safe, including two emergency shelters, became among the deadliest.
In the impoverished Philippines, where the jobless risk life and limb to feed their families, there is little the government can do once such danger zones spring up.
“It’s not only an environmental issue, it’s also a poverty issue,” said Environment Secretary Ramon Paje. “The people would say, ‘We are better off here. At least we have food to eat or money to buy food, even if it is risky.’ ”
More than 400 people remained missing Thursday after the typhoon struck the southern Philippines this week.
The military said Thursday that 214 people died in Compostela Valley and 151 in nearby Davao Oriental province, with 31 others killed in other central and southern provinces. The typhoon, which hit the region with winds of 175 km/h, was over the South China Sea on Thursday and was expected to dissipate by the weekend.
Deadly floods are common on resource-rich Mindanao Island. The Bureau of Mines and Geosciences had issued warnings before the typhoon to people living in flood-prone areas, but in the Compostela Valley, nearly every area is flood-prone.
Bureau Director Leo Jasareno said about 80 per cent of the valley is a danger zone due to a combination of factors, including the mountains and rivers, as well as logging that has stripped hills of trees that minimize landslides and absorb rainwater. Logging has been banned since last year’s fatal flooding, but it continues illegally.