by Frank Cimatu and Angel Castillo
THREE siblings were killed when their house in La Trinidad was buried by a landslide on Monday evening while Severe Tropical Storm Maring was pounding the town.
The Teligo family was having their dinner inside their house in Central Purok Ubbog, Ambiong when the landslide occurred.
The parents were saved by neighbors who rushed to their rescue. But their children, Ayesha (two years old), Neckler (six years old), and Nigel (eight years old) died even before they reached the hospital.
Their parents were pulled out alive from the rubble an hour after the landslide happened. Their children were rushed to the hospital but sadly were declared dead on arrival.
Monday’s rainfall on the valley was one of the heaviest, according to La Trinidad Mayor
Romeo Salda.
Rainfall in Benguet Province broke through the month-long rain amounts recorded in the past months in a single day during the onslaught of the severe tropical storm.
According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Maring was able to bring on more rain in a single day in the 24 hour period between October 11 and 12 than was recorded in the entirety of the previous month.
PAGASA’s Benguet station recorded 535 mm of rainfall on September 15, while in the 24 hour period between October 11 and 12 alone, Baguio and by extension Benguet saw 625.3 mm of rainfall.
In the 24 hour period, Baguio saw 130 percent of the normal monthly rainfall average.
Engineer Larry Esperanza, chief of Baguio’s PAGASA Station, said Baguio’s poor drainage system exacerbated flooding in the area in conjunction with the heavy rainfall.
Baguio City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña meanwhile said that there is already an ongoing project in the area to improve the drainage system.
Other than Baguio, the stations in Dagupan and Laoag also recorded more than 100 percent of rainfall–equivalent to the entire month’s average rainfall–due to the passage of Maring.
That same tragic night on Monday, the Ocampo family in Marosan Alley in Dominican-Mirador Barangay was also having their dinner when the mountainside above them gave way and buried their house.
Rescuers were able to recover the body of an adult male before Tuesday noon but those of the two girls were recovered only the next day.
Killed were Alfredo Ocampo, Jr, 49, Thalia Kasidee Ocampo, four years old, and Judy Rose Ocampo Tulipas, 12 years old.
Betty Fangasan, City Social Welfare Development (CSWD) officer, in a report to the mayor, said Mariejoe, Ocampo’s wife, was injured but survived along with the family of Ocampo’s brother whose house was also destroyed.
Also killed during the storm were Cherrie Dillam Leo, 32, in Tuding, Itogon; Colasa Tigwey, 80, in Apucao, Itogon and June Perez Balangen, 20, of Tacadang, Kibungan town.
Leo was with her husband inside their house when it, too, was buried by a landslide. Her husband Reagan Leo was taken out from the rubble and immediately brought to the hospital where he suffered minor injuries. Cherrie was not as lucky.
Tigwey was killed when the wall of her house collapsed on her after it was hit by the landslide.
That evening also saw town people stranded when the three major entry roads were either closed by landslides or flooding.
The City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC) chaired by Mayor Benjamin Magalong also reported that the unexpected heavy downpour caused damages to infrastructures and triggered floods within the central business district due to clogged drainage inlets.
The CDRRM Office headed by Officer-in-Charge Antonette Anaban which activated the operations center at the onset of the rains coordinated response to reported incidents with teams from other city government offices, line agencies, volunteer groups and private companies.
They responded to a total of 65 reported incidents of 34 landslides/soil erosions; 16 fallen/leaning/uprooted/dead trees; six leaning/falling posts/hanging/exploded wires; six flooding/overflowing drainage/flashfloods, one damage to properties (torn roof/retaining wall); and two eroded ripraps.
City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña said the abnormal rainfall saturated the soil causing it to loosen and erode especially in unstable areas.
He said the excessive amount of water also caused flooding mainly because drainage inlets were clogged with garbage, mostly strewn face shields and masks and gravel from unkempt construction sites.
Once the openings had been cleared, the floods had subsided right away, he said.
Inspections and assessments of the damaged infrastructures were still ongoing as of Friday to determine the estimated amount of damage wrought by the typhoon.
For her part, CSWD, according to Fangasan, said that a total of 140 families composed of 564 individuals were affected by the typhoon.
Twenty-five families with 90 members took shelter at the three evacuation centers while 115 others with 474 members were served outside the centers.
Thirty-three houses were damaged, three of which were totally destroyed and 30 partially damaged.
The power outage was experienced in some parts of the city but restoration had reached 85 percent as of Oct. 13 through the round-the-clock and all-team effort of the BENECO under General Manager Melchor Licoben.
Major roads leading to the city were also hit by soil erosion and falling rocks and trees causing temporary passage disturbances at some point at the height of the howler but these were immediately acted on by the Dept. of Public Works and Highways and the Baguio City District Engineering Office. – with reports from Aileen Refuerzo.
