Forced evacuation
• Davao rivers reach critical level, injury avoided
THE CITY government imposed forced evacuations of homes in communities near rivers on Wednesday night.
Rodrigo Bustillo, operations officer of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO), said they implemented the evacuation to preempt any disaster due to the continuous heavy rains.
Heavy rains hit the city on Wednesday night, causing the Davao River, Bunawan River, and the Lasang River to swell.
“We have already anticipated flooding from these rivers based on our monitoring so we issued early warning for pre-emptive evacuations,” Bustillo told Times.
The CDRRMO activated a citywide siren around 10 p.m. Wednesday to alert Barangays 1-A, 2-A, 5-A, and 40-D in Poblacion District, and Barangay 74-A (Matina Crossing) and Barangay 76-A (Bucana) in Talomo District, all located at the bank of Davao River, to conduct forced evacuation. Residents in Barangay Mandug, Tigatto, and Waan, all in Buhangin District, were also warned.
“We activated the citywide siren to enforce forced evacuation,” Bustillo said.
Lamenting that some residents refused to evacuate, Bustillo said “we deployed our police forces as well as the Task Force Davao and the barangay responders to be able to implement the forced evacuation.”
The Davao City Police Office (DCPO) reported that they implemented the forced evacuation around 11 p.m. Wednesday.
The search and rescue teams, composed of personnel for the DCPO headquarters, City Mobile Force Company (CMFC), and the San Pedro, Talomo, Sta. Ana, Buhangin, Toril, Sasa and Bunawan precincts were deployed to assist the Barangay Risk Reduction Management Council (BRRMC).
Hundreds of families were reported to have been evacuated. These included 105 families in Barangay 5-A (with about 400 individuals who were evacuated at Doña Pilar L. Marfori Elementary School) and 110 families (with 420 individuals) from Dapsa in Barangay 76-A, Sitio Padaman, Sanguilangan, and Morvisa in Barangay Maa, were evacuated to Ma-a Elementary School for safety and security.
The City Social Services and Development Office (CSSDO) dispatched the Mobile Kitchen to provide food to the affected families.
The CDRRMO reported that by 3 a.m. yesterday, the water in the Davao River reached critical level.
But as of 8 a.m. yesterday, the evacuees in the Poblacion District were already told to return home as the water already subsided.
“Everything is fine now (in the Davao River),” Bustillo said.
In Bunawan District, floods still affected the residents, causing heavy traffic along the national highway yesterday morning.
“Around 6 in the morning (Thursday), the water in Bunawan River reached the red alert level. The flooding reached the street that caused heavy traffic to the already busy area of the city,” Bustillo added.
However, at 1 p.m. yesterday, the river was back to its safe level and the flood already subsided.
The pre-emptive evacuations also prevented injuries.
“We have not recorded damages and injuries especially with the response of the residents to our pre-emptive evacuation,” said CDRRMO acting head Alfredo Baluran.
“With the early warning devices in our flood-prone barangays, more residents are now responsive to our alarms. Yesterday night, about 90% were responded to the evacuation” Baluran added.
Bustillo urged the public to always monitor the warnings and follow the CDRRMO advisories.
“We always provide early warnings and advisories, hence, we request the public to follow these so that we can have enough time to prepare and enough time to evacuate to avoid injuries and casualties in time of flooding,” he called.