Officials in Dumaguete City, the capital of Negros Oriental, are on constant alert against flashfloods due to the erratic weather conditions and heavy rains in the nearby mountains of Valencia town.
Engr. Jose Chu,head of the City Disaster Risk- Reduction & Management Office, on Wednesday assured that Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo “is on top of the situation”.
For days now, they have been on standby alert, alongside the police and rescue groups, to monitor the waters of the Banica River that could overflow anytime due to heavy downpour, he said.
Engr. Chu said they responded to several alerts of rising waters since Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m., after the Energy Development Corp. who operates the Palinpinon geothermal plants in Valencia notified them of heavy rains.
EDC has rain gauges that can tell the amount of rainfall at any given time.
According to Engr. Chu, they were monitoring Banica River because in the event of flashfloods, they would effect forced evacuation of residents living along the river banks.
On Wednesday, the CDRRMO once again deployed rescue vehicles and personnel as they received word that the Okoy and Banica Rivers were flooded although it was not raining in Valencia, said Chu.
He admitted they are wondering where the source of the flooding is.
Meanwhile, Engr. Chu lamented that they were not informed that flooding occurred at the loop road leading to the slaughterhouse in Barangay Banilad.
Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, the road had turned into a mini-river with vehicles and people still attempting to pass through.
But Chu said nobody had informed local officials of the flooding.
That area has been a perennial problem for the city government with no solution in sight as yet, even though Mayor Remollo had already assured there is a massive drainage plan to correct the problem there as it is the loop road that leads to the proposed new government center in the adjacent barangay of Bajumpandan. (Judy Flores Partlow)
