Thursday, September 18, 2008 Teener drowns in Cotabato; child dies in Pikit floods
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- A 14-year-old girl is presumed dead after she was swept by the strong current of the Tamontaka River in Cotabato City, around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, reports from the City Disaster Coordinating Council said.
Sam Mundas, head of a rescue group in Cotabato City, said the teener, together with some of her friends, went to the river to dive, just a few hours before their morning classes.
After a few dives, the girl failed to surface, her friends told the rescue group.
Mundas, in an interview over dxMS, said they have already launched an all-out search for the girl.
"She might have been swept by the strong current. We just hope she survives," he said.
The torrential rains have again almost flooded the city of Cotabato, forcing schools in low-lying villages to suspend classes.
One of those worst hit by the floods since Sunday is the Notre Dame Village High School located at Barangay Notre Dame, a low-lying area.
Mundas said water hyacinths coming from the upper Rio Grande de Mindanao have again blocked the flow of the rivers to the Moro Gulf, thus inundating a wide portion of the city.
In Pikit, North Cotabato, a child died a few hours after she was born when the waters in Barangay Paidu Pulangi located near the Liguasan marsh overflowed Monday night, reports from Pikit municipal police director Elias Dandan said.
"Her family was forced to vacate the place when the waters ran high. Because of the lack of transportation, the baby was not able to reach the hospital. She died while fleeing the floods," Dandan said.
About 705 families from Barangay Paidu Pulangi left the villages on Monday and are still temporary housed on high grounds as of Wednesday, according to Dandan.
The floods that hit the town since Saturday damaged agricultural crops worth P28.1 million and affected 3,423 farmers in at least 11 villages, reports from the Pikit Municipal Agriculture Office said. (Malu Cadelina Manar)
