Heavy rains and flooding brought on by Tropical Depression “Verbena” drove 3,571 families with 10,943 members to evacuation centers in Bacolod City on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
The evacuees came from 31 barangays, with 5,825 or more than half from Barangay Singcang Airport.
There were still 7,376 in evacuation centers as of 7 p.m. Tuesday, the city government reported.
The state weather bureau lifted Wind Signal No. 1 over Negros Occidental and Bacolod City at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The floods rendered roads impassable Tuesday morning, and residents in Purok Mars, Barangay Singcang Airport, Bacolod City, escaped drowning by seeking refuge on rooftops.
Floodwaters also washed away a house at Purok Consuelo, Barangay Villamonte in Bacolod City.
Mayor Greg Gasataya said that all roads in the city were passable as of Tuesday afternoon with the floodwaters having subsided.
“The volume of rain was about 70.5 mm (millimeters) in a span of four hours. The average rainfall is about 10 mm per day so the volume was huge,” he said.
Gasataya said all rivers in Bacolod overflowed and were at critical level Tuesday morning.
The city government conducted preemptive and forced evacuation, but there were some who refused to leave their homes and had to be rescued when floodwaters rose, he added.
Gasataya said he received a report on Monday afternoon that the road at the flyover area in Barangay Bata was not passable.
When they went to the area they discovered that the creek near the north terminal that the city government had cleaned earlier as again full of garbage, he said.
From Monday night to Tuesday morning more than two trucks of garbage was removed from the creek, which included branches and leaves from Typhoon “Tino”, Gasataya said.
Relief goods from the Department of Social Welfare and Development were distributed to the displaced families, he said.*