Paolo brings heavy damage; Dumaguete City placed under state of calamity

CEBU, Philippines — The City Council, in a special session on Thursday, declared Dumaguete under a state of calamity, after tropical storm Paolo wrought heavy damage in infrastructure in the city, worse than typhoon Sendong in 2011, but with zero casualty.

City Planning and Development Officer Leonides Caro earlier reported to the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council that an estimated 200 linear meters of river dikes were destroyed, and two spillways at Barangays Taclobo and Batinguel Bagacay were eroded.

The two spillways were rendered impassable early dawn Thursday as a result of strong currents and piling up of  debris of fallen trees.

The gabion protecting the Camanjac septage facility was also totally washed out, as well as the  house of Mario Maquiling, located at the northern side of  Purok Zone 2 Sampaguita at Barangay Candau-ay, where two sections of the dikes were destroyed.

Boulder dikes near the damaged spillways also gave way, threatening lives and properties in the area. At Purok 3 in Villafortunate in Batinguel, four residential houses were on the verge of  being carried away by the rampaging flood waters. Their respective comfort rooms and kitchens were already washed away.

At Purok 5, also in Batinguel, only 10 meters of the dikes were left standing of the whole stretch, which is located at the downstream of the footbridge. In Balugo, the 20-meter span of the river dikes was also damaged.

Caro said that based on the initial assessment together with those of city local government operations officer Farah Gentuya, City Councilor Lilani Ramon, and the City Engineers Office—damage to infrastructure is bigger than Sendong.

Meanwhile, a resident of  Purok Banikanhon identified as Oliver Dagodog was carried away by the floods while gathering driftwoods, but was successfully retrieved several meters away at Angatan in Barangay Tabuctubig. He was brought to the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital and is now declared out of danger.

Several barangays conducted preventive evacuations of the sickly, and senior citizens. Since Thursday evening, at Barangay Poblacion 8, a total of 105 families with 393 individuals were also evacuated to safer grounds, one of which was the barangay hall.

Tabuctubig had evacuated 19 families, consisting of 139 individuals; Poblacion 2 had 47 families or 174 individuals; Bagacay had two families; and Batinguel had 14 families. So far, a total of 191 families composed of 706 individuals have been evacuated. (FREEMAN)