For downstream Bulacan town, flood comes from its neighbors

CALUMPIT, Bulacan – Typhoon “Pepeng" (Parma) brought only light rain in Calumpit town in Bulacan, but it flooded anyway. And the floodwaters stayed, as a seemingly endless current of water arrives from neighboring Pampanga and Nueva Ecija. Such is the fate of towns along the floodwaters' journey to the sea. "24 of the 29 barangays (villages) of our town were swamped," Calumpit Mayor James de Jesus said on Monday. “Yung tubig galing sa Candaba (in Pampanga) at Nueva Ecija ay dumadaan talaga rito papunta sa Manila Bay. Calumpit has been the catch basin since time immemorial," De Jesus said. (Floodwater from Candaba and Nueva Ecija really pass through here before making its way out to the Manila Bay. Calumpit has been the catch basin since time immemorial.)
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV A catch basin is an area where the water from various directions converge. Straddling Calumpit to the north is Candaba swamp in Pampanga, a perennially water-logged area. Beyond Calumpit to the south is Hagonoy, Bulacan, another so-called catch-basin town where the floodwaters pass last before entering the sea. In the vast flood plains of central Luzon, also a major growing center for the water-intensive rice crop, Calumpit and Hagonoy were built in the most vulnerable areas, so floods are a part of life. But the one in Pepeng's wake is different. “Talagang binabaha kami dito, although recently hindi naman ganito kalala. Ito na yata ang isa sa pinakamatagal na baha dito sa Calumpit dahil sa dalawang magkasunod na bagyo," he said. (This town really gets flooded, although recently, flooding has not been this bad. This must be one of the longest flooding here due to the two consecutive cyclones that hit the country recently.) It doesn't help that Calumpit is heavily built-up, having lost much of its farmland to concrete along with its capacity to absorb water through the earth. Evacuation Mayor de Jesus explained that over 700 families had to be brought to seven evacuation centers across town due to the flooding, which in some areas is already eight feet deep. He expects the number of evacuees to rise because residents in a relocation site in Iba Este village still needed to be evacuated. He also appealed for assistance for the evacuees, especially food items. “Nakahanda naman kami. Lahat naman ng evacuees, inaasikaso namin. Pero ang immediate talaga na pangangailangan is food. ‘Yung mga gamot, kaya na natin ‘yun. Malinis din naman ang tubig sa evacuation centers," he said. (We are ready. We make sure that all the needs of the evacuees get attended to, but food is really the immediate need here. We can take care of the medicines, and the water in evacuation centers is clean.) Double whammy Before Pepeng was Ondoy, which dumped an enormous amount of rainfall in Calumpit and surrounding towns. Sonia Sanchez, a resident of Northville relocation site in Iba Este village, thought she could finally go through her normal daily routine once the floods caused by Ondoy began to subside last week. They were relieved that Pepeng had avoided them this time. The 48-year-old vegetable vendor went to the market early Sunday morning to buy goods she could sell, only to return to her house shocked by thigh-deep floodwater. She, her husband, her children, and her two grandchildren had to be evacuated using a dump truck because of heavy flooding in the relocation site. “Nangangatog pa ‘yung mga tuhod ko dahil sa pagod at takot. Binuhat ko ang mga apo ko para hindi kami malubog sa baha," she said. (My knees are still shaking because of exhaustion and fear. I had to carry my two grandchildren to save them from the flood.) Sanchez and her family had to leave all their belongings on the roof of their one-storey house to save them from the floodwater. “'Yung TV namin, ‘yung mga plato, lahat ng pwedeng iakyat, nilagay namin sa bubong para hindi mabasa ng baha," she said. (We had to place our TV set, our plates and all of the things we could lift up our roof to keep them dry.) As they stay in the evacuation center waiting for yet another flood to subside, she was praying that the water from Pampanga and Nueva Ecija inside her house would not get any deeper. “Sana hindi na talaga tumaas pa ‘yung baha. Hindi pa nga kami nakaka-recover kay Ondoy, heto na naman," she said. (I wish the flood won’t go deeper. We still haven’t recovered from the flood caused by storm Ondoy. Now, we are flooded again.) - GMANews.TV