Flooded highway. PIA-Bataan photo
PILAR, Bataan — Heavy rains on Wednesday night to Thursday morning enhanced by the southwest monsoon caused flash floods in 11 towns and one city in Bataan.
Most of the rivers overflowed and inundated some portions of the MacArthur Highway and residential areas with flood waters from ankle level to five feet deep.
The provincial disaster risk reduction management office said affected by the flash floods were Dinalupihan, Hermosa, Orani, Samal, Abucay, Balanga City, Pilar, Orion, Limay, Mariveles, Bagac, and Morong.
Flood waters in Balanga City where some areas were three feet deep Thursday morning subsided at 12 noon of the same day. In Orion, Samal, Orani, and Limay, only some small portion of the roads were left flooded with not more than knee-deep, after the early morning surge.
This Thursday, there were intermittent light to moderate rains prevailing in most areas of Bataan.
Left still flooded were some barangays in Pilar, Abucay and Hermosa with one to four feet of flood waters.
A portion of the MacArthur Highway in Pilar was not passable to light vehicles like tricycles, motorcycles and small cars.
Barangay Poblacion, Pilar chairman Jerome Del Rosario said they rescued 13 families of 56 individuals from sitios Laing, Kaluluwa, and Kulob where flood waters rose from three to four feet. He assured that the barangay has ready rice, canned goods and eggs for the evacuees.
He said that there were still some villagers reluctant to evacuate but that they will convince them to come to the evacuation centers where they will be more safe.
Del Rosario said flood waters started to rise in Pilar at about 10 in the morning. Village kagawad Girlie Paule and David Jimenez of barangay Rizal said affected by the flood in Pilar were barangays Poblacion, Del Rosario, Panilao, and Rizal.
Paule said the deepest was “lampas-tao” in sitio Tabon while the surrounding areas were with waist-deep.
Evacuee Rose Tario, 73, of Sitio Kaluluwa, said flood water of waist-deep already entered their house so they were forced to evacuate.
