Cagayan de Oro readies for storm feared to hit exactly 10 years after ‘Sendong’

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – The city government called off a three-day mass vaccination campaign as it focused on preparations to cushion the impact of a storm feared to affect parts of Mindanao exactly the same day Cagayan de Oro saw its worst environmental disaster a decade ago.

Fearing a repeat of the devastation caused by Tropical Storm “Sendong” (Washi), disaster officials went on full throttle in preparation for a new storm, which is forecast to make landfall in Caraga or Eastern Visayas on Thursday, December 16.

“Sendong” flattened communities, destroyed properties, crippled public utility companies, and left thousands dead or homeless in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan on December 16, 2011.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) in El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental, said the province and Cagayan de Oro City were in the “circle of uncertainty,” even as it called on local officials and residents to prepare.

The city government decided to not proceed with the Bayanihan Bakunahan 2 mass vaccination campaign from December 15 to 17 and close down all COVID-19 vaccination centers in anticipation of a typhoon.

Cagayan de Oro Disaster Risk Reduction Office chief Nick Jabagat said they were closely monitoring the rainfall and river levels in Bukidnon, an elevated province from which floodwaters that inundated many communities in the city in the past emanated.

Jabagat said heavy rainfall in Bukidnon spawned the floods that inundated the riverside villages of Carmen and Macasandig, Cagayan de Oro, when “Sendong” struck in 2011.

Jabagat said the city government was prepared to issue mandatory evacuation orders, depending on PAGASA’s weather advisories.

In neighboring Gingoog City, more than 330 families fled to safer grounds as rain poured, spawning a flood in the easternmost part of Misamis Oriental on Monday night, December 13.

The situation was aggravated by floodwaters blamed on an unfinished dike project in Gingoog.

Officials of Gingoog, a component city of Misamis Oriental, suspended classes at all levels on Tuesday, as rains continued to pour even before an incoming tropical storm could enter Philippine territory.

Misamis Oriental disaster controls chief Fernando Vincent Dy said the Coast Guard already prevented vessels less than 200 tons from venturing out to sea.

Ferry services, however, between Balingoan town in Misamis Oriental and Benoni town in Camiguin Island were still permitted, as of this posting.

Operations at the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental remained normal, as of this posting, said Dy.

This early, Dy said, over 1,000 people from Barangay 24 and another 36 families from Barangay 1 in Gingoog City evacuated to village gyms because of floods.

The capitol also alerted all town mayors in the province and instructed them to preposition heavy equipment, especially in the flood-prone towns of Balingasag and Opol. – Rappler.com

Froilan Gallardo is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship.