Landslide kills couple; more Luzon villages flooded

RESCUE EFFORT A 3-month-old baby was carried to safety by Ilocos Sur volunteers who rescued members of three households who were trapped in Sunday floods that struck Barangay Talogtog in Candon City. —LEONCIO BALBIN / CONTRIBUTOR

A couple died on Saturday when their house was buried in a landslide at Kibungan town in Benguet province due to monsoon rains that hammered Northern Luzon over the weekend, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

Florentino and Cristina Ligaten were killed by the erosion as strong rains pounded the village of Madaymen but their son, Clifford, survived and is being treated at Atok District Hospital.

In Ilocos Sur on Sunday, volunteers rescued a 3-month-old child, a pregnant woman and members of three households from the flooded section of the village of Talogtog in Candon City.

Nonstop rain

Candon has been under water, along with other towns, due to nonstop rains.

In Pangasinan province, residents waded through floods, some in their Sunday best, to attend Mass, as torrential rains left 77 villages in 12 towns and cities inundated, according to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO).

The flooded villages lie along the province’s rivers in the towns of Bani, Bugallon, Mangatarem, Calasiao, Manaoag, Agno, Bautista, Santa Barbara and Urbiztondo, and in the cities of Dagupan, San Carlos and Alaminos.

Evacuees

As of 9 a.m. on Sunday, some 53 families were still in evacuation centers in Bugallon and San Carlos City.

In La Union province, three towns also remained flooded on Sunday, caused by the weekend rains that raised water level at the Amburayan River and the province’s other river systems, said Alvin Cruz, operations officer of the La Union PDRRMO.

In its flood bulletin, the Agno River Basin Flood Forecasting and Warning Center warned residents in villages along the Agno River of possible flooding as San Roque Dam in San Manuel town continued to release water.

As of 6 a.m. on Sunday, San Roque Dam had two spillway gates raised to 4.5 meters to discharge water at the rate of 762 cubic meters per second. A cubic meter of water is about five drums.

San Roque’s reservoir level had increased to 279.63 meters above sea level (masl) on Sunday, barely 37 centimeters from its normal high level of 280 masl. San Roque had been spilling water since Aug. 12. —REPORTS FROM GABRIEL CARDINOZA AND LEONCIO BALBIN, CONTRIBUTOR

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