Kabankalan cops, evacuees clung on to trees to survive
Screen grabbed from Kabankalan PNP videoSix policemen clung on to trees like tarsiers for twelve hours when floodwaters rose as typhoon “Odette” lashed Kabankalan City on Friday, December 17, Mayor Pedro Zayco said Tuesday.The policemen had gone to Sitio San Jose in Barangay 6, Kabankalan to rescue residents, when there was a sudden surge of water in the wee hours of Friday, he said.The policemen and the 17 adults and children they rescued jumped out of the patrol vehicle and climbed pili trees to avoid being carried away by the floodwaters.Their Hyundai H-100 vehicle disappeared and maybe at the bottom of a river, Zayco said.Lt. Col. Raymond Cruz, Kabankalan police chief, said they tried to rescue the trapped policemen and the evacuees but they could not reach the are...