PAMPANGA, Philippines – In the municipality of Candaba, everything is eerily silent a day after the first south monsoon rains hit.

Submerged trees and fields line roads impassable to vehicles, as murky brown waters extend for miles, with no end in sight.

Pampanga declared a state of calamity Wednesday, August 8. According to government reports, at least 6 are dead from the province, 3 of whom died from electrocution.

As of Thursday, August 9, 354 barangays in Pampanga are still underwater. 

No way out

Floodwaters continued to flow through the town of Santo Tomas, one of the hardest hit areas, after 100 meters of the tail dike in neighboring Bacolor town broke Tuesday, August 7.

The tail dike is an extension of the P1-B mega dike, which was built to prevent lahar from flowing into eastern and western Pampanga towns.

Residents tried to prevent the tail dike from breaking by adding sandbags, but the floodwaters were too strong. When part of it exploded, residents of Santo Tomas were caught off guard by the sudden flow of water that reached waist levels in a matter of two and a half hours.

“Napakagrabe ng situwasyon natin dito, sapagkat kahapon nabigla sila. Pumutok yung tail dike, yung tail dike na yan nanggaling yung tubig galing pa sa Porak yan (The situation here is extreme because people were surprised. The tail dike exploded, letting in water all the way from Porak),” said Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo who was helping with efforts in Santo Tomas.

According to Pelayo, the low-lying town of Santo Tomas has become a catch basin of some sort, as water from surrounding towns could not find a way out to Manila Bay.

He said this time, the water has risen faster than it did in Ondoy in 2009.

Over 48 hours since the first rainfall, Santo Tomas remained at a standstill with most houses still submerged and stores closed Wednesday night. Residents don’t expect the water to clear until at least a week.

As night fell, darkness bathed the town that continued to experience widespread power outages.

Lack of resources

Many residents have decided to stay in their houses as they wait out conditions, braving the floods once in a while to search for food. 

Even the evacuation center is short on stock and are unable to provide regular meals for all the evacuees seeking shelter in the town’s lone church. 

While rescue teams from Tarlac and Manila have scanned the area and assisted some residents to higher grounds, the impassable roads make the town of Santo Tomas harder to reach by relief efforts.

Santo Tomas resident Jessie Ortega said he ventured out of his home to find food for his family, but there is nothing available.

“Syempre mga tao hindi malaman kung anong gagawin nila,” he said. “Mga pagkain, tubig, ganun. Damit, inumin, gamot, ganun, yun ang kailangan namin (Of course we didn’t know what to do. Food, water, clothes, drinks, medicine, that’s what we need).” 

He knows this disaster is likely to happen again with the dike broken, but it is the least of his concerns at the moment.

Government engineers are currently finding a way to temporarily seal the damaged tail dike, but to date, there is no long-term solution to protecting the high flood risk towns of Santo Tomas. – Rappler.com, photos by Josh Albelda

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