CITY OF MALOLOS—Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando on Saturday ordered the preemptive evacuation of residents in low-lying and coastal areas in the province including those living near the mountainous areas to ensure the safety of everyone as super typhoon Pepito is expected to hit Central Luzon on Sunday.
Fernando, chairman of the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) called an emergency meeting over the weekend and ordered the pre-emptive evacuation of residents in coastal areas in Obando town and in the landslide prone areas in Norzagaray, Dona Remedios Trinidad (DRT), Angat, San Miguel and other hilly and elevated towns.
Bulacan was under typhoon signal No. 1 including other provinces in Luzon as signal No. 2 and 3 were raised in Bicol and Eastern Visayas regions due to super typhoon Pepito. Signal No. 2 that could even raise to Signal No. 3 is foreseen to hit Bulacan and other areas in region 3 on Sunday.
Fernando also similarly tasked all the disaster risk reduction management offices in the other coastal towns of Calumpit, Hagonoy, Bulakan, Paombong and the City of Malolos to also enforce a necessary pre-emptive evacuation of residents living near the river and island barangays
Bulacan PDRRM Officer Manuel Lukban Jr. said that they have yet to determine the number of families and individuals evacuated in Obando.
In Calumpit, 44 individuals from 15 families in Barangay Meysulao are already on standby for pre-emptive evacuation to Meysulao Multi-Purpose Hall.
The rest of the towns and cities have also prepositioned their respective rescue personnel and their equipment including relief packs, their respective city and municipal disaster risk reduction management officers informed the governor.
Fernando also ordered a full stop in fishing activity in the coastal areas to prevent any incident of drowning. During the recent typhoon Kristine, a fisherman in Obando town died after braving the strong rains and winds to catch fish along Manila Bay and Obando waters. Bulacan rescue teams also safely rescued in Obando river two fishermen from Limay, Bataan at the height of typhoon Kristine.
The governor also ordered residents living near the cliffs and at the foot of the mountains in DRT, Norzagaray, Angat, San Miguel and other mountainous areas in the province to prevent similar landslide incidents that struck Talisay, Batangas and Bicol region areas during typhoon Kristine.
The Bulacan Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce through its president, Lily Domingo, have donated 100 cavans of rice which the governor said will be prepared as cook foods to be distributed to the residents in the evacuation centers and to those who will be affected of the typhoons particularly in areas where cooking and preparations of food will be hard and impossible because of flood and power outages brought by the typhoon.
Fernando also ordered a possible pre-emptive release of waters in the three dams—Angat, Ipo and Bustos to prevent a simultaneous release during the height of the heavy downpour that further aggravate flooding in the low-lying areas of Bulacan.
Since Friday, Bustos dam has been at 17. 18 meters elevation against its 17.30 spilling level has been releasing 22 cubic meter per second (cms) of water.
Angat dam was at 201.04 meters above sea level (masl) compared with its 214.00 masl flood season high level while Ipo dam was at 100.22 meters compared with its 101.00 meters spilling level.