HEAVY rains spawned by the prevailing southwest monsoon has triggered massive flooding in the province of La Union, inundating its capital of San Fernando City and 11 coastal municipalities, submerging houses into deep floodwaters and forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.
Weather officials said the extremely bad weather condition was whipped up by Tropical Storm Egay (international code name Linfa), which is affecting other provinces in Northern Luzon, Cordillera Administrative Region, Southern Luzon, the Visayas and even Metro Manila.
“Flooding is massive here in La Union, with 11 coastal municipalities flooded because major river basins have swelled. Here in San Fernando, La Union, the flooding is still ongoing and the rain is also strong and even the winds,” said Office of Civil Defense 1 Regional Director Chito Castro on Sunday.
“The major roads here are already almost impassable. Houses have been swamped by floodwaters and there are houses that have also been completely inundated,” he said, describing the severity of the flooding.
Castro said rescue teams and staff from different agencies forming the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) have been out, helping the affected residents and implementing evacuation as it is needed, as he admitted they were taken surprise by the amount of rainfall that was dumped by the southwest monsoon. “It appeared like there was a very strong typhoon,” he said.
“The PDRRMC Ilocos Sur of Gov. [Luis] Singson and of Gov. [Amado] Espino of Pangasinan were moving to assist La Union. If La Union cannot really deal with it, then we will ask help from the national government,” Castro said.
Weather forecasters said that aside from La Union, the southwest monsoon is affecting the provinces of Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Cavite, Mindoro provinces, Batangas, Palawan, Marinduque, Romblon, Masbate, Burias Island, Catanduanes, Albay, Sorsogon, Quezon, Polillo Island, Samar, Leyte, Negros provinces, Guimaras, Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, Antique, Bohol, Cebu and even Metro Manila.
The southwest monsoon was being whipped up by Egay which is affecting the provinces of Kalinga, Apayao, Isabela, Quirino, Northern Aurora, Cagayan and Calayan Group of Islands, which are already under Storm Signal No 2.
Castro said that aside from the capital, the towns that were flooded included Agoo, Caba, Aringay, Bauang, San Juan and Bacnotan.
He said the flooding has transformed major roads and highways into rivers, sparing not even agricultural lands. As of 8 a.m. on Sunday, La Union has already experienced a province-wide power outage.