TRAFFIC stalled. Parents worried sick over their children stuck in schools. People waded the flood waters just to get home while others were left helpless, drenched and hungry in their offices. Vehicles submerged along C.M. Recto Avenue.
Worst, the inclement weather recorded about seven or six deaths in Northern Mindanao (I couldn’t get the exact figure yet as the Office of Civil Defense is still doing the rapid damage assessment). With this, the zero-casualty target failed.
The flood aftermath resulted to some houses especially in areas near the two rivers filled with mud reaching up the ceiling and tons of debris including trash that clogged the creeks and drainage in the city.
The images flooded the social media, news websites and the TV newscasts last week. And these are not new since every year we see these occurring in the different parts of the country.
To Kagay-anons, the deluge last week was no stranger as the city went through a tragic one five years ago. Since then, torrential rains would always bring tension and anxiety to the residents.
Hundreds of families were also evacuated in Valencia City in Bukidnon province, Zamboanga del Norte province, Caraga Region and in some parts of North Cotabato. Several towns and cities have been put under the state of calamity in these areas. Relief operations are still ongoing. Families sheltered in the evacuation centers are still languishing there and most likely the old, children and women will be getting ill and the sick getting sicker if their stay in the cramped shelters is prolonged.
While the rain poured in Cagayan de Oro and alerts were being activated following the gravity of the situation, anxiety-filled postings and comments, the rants, praises, suggestions, criticisms gushed over social media too! Even photos of the local government unit headed by Mayor Oscar Moreno monitoring the situation also didn’t miss circulation. This, of course, didn’t go by without praises and bashes from the opposing quarters, those “who don’t take sides” and the “experts.”
Election campaigns don’t end even if polls are over. Expect that politicians who target to finish the 9-year term won’t let anything get past them without being documented and published. That’s normal!
And what were again normal last week were the reactive responses from officials of concerned agencies and the elected officials. Each resounding again the “what we already know they’re going to tell the public” like what could have been done, what not, what should be, how to and how much and so on…” to mitigate disasters due to flooding and landslides. Blaming is another normal.
The Cagayan de Oro Disaster Risk Reduction Management Department said floodwaters reached about six to seven feet deep while it recorded 166.2 millimeters of rainfall from a rain gauge near Cagayan de Oro River which is far from what it expected at about 50 to 60mm of rainfall.
The images of inundation in the country are repeatedly seen in varied degrees, but they only spell the same – disaster.
Mitigating disaster is a humongous challenge to the government considering its capacity to address the impacts of the unpredictable changes in the climate the world faces today.
In fact, rich countries in the world have already started implementing their measures to combat climate change while the Philippines and the other poor countries are tailing behind as their governments allow technologies and methods of wood/timber and mineral production (proven to be destructive to the environment such as logging and mining) that have long been disposed of by those rich countries.
In the late 50s, logging operations in Mindanao felled the trees in our forests. When the concessions were stopped, illegal logging became rampant and continued the rape of the forests now resulting to flash floods and landslides.
Because this is the Philippines and we have great minds in our legislative bodies, laws protecting the environment were crafted. Are these laws fully enforced? Take the waste segregation – I bet we can only count a few towns and cities that have been implementing it. Definitely, Cagayan de Oro has not enforced waste segregation and yet it is spending millions in taking care of its garbage. Though, I know there is one barangay that implements it. I hope there could be more.
If only the City Government could enforce the waste segregation as a proper waste disposal method, perhaps a garbage-free creeks and drainage in the midst of flooding is going to be a new thing.