City placed under state of calamity

By Maricar M. Calubiran

Iloilo City has been declared under state of calamity following the flashflood caused by heavy rains last Tuesday night.

Latest data from the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) revealed that a total of 88 barangays in the city's six districts were affected displacing thousands of families.

In last Wednesday's regular session, the city council approved a resolution declaring Iloilo City under a state of calamity.

With the declaration, the city government could use the 5 percent calamity fund for emergency purchases of relief goods.

Mrs. Veronica Gregorio of the CSWDO said, as of 12:30 p.m. Thursday, the list of barangays affected by the flash flood reached 88 with 5,987 families affected.

She said they have already spent more than half a million pesos in their relief operations. Relief goods such as rice, noodles and sardines were distributed to the victims through their respective barangay captains.

Surprisingly, the City Proper has the most number of affected families out of the 88 affected barangays. There are 18 affected barangays with 3,615 affected families. It is followed by Lapaz district with 16 barangays affected and 2,500 affected families.

Mandurriao district landed third in the list of the barangays hit by floodwaters. There are 15 affected barangays with 3,537 affected families.

Mandurriao's number of affected families is much bigger compared to Lapaz district. The districts of Molo and Jaro each have 14 affected barangays. They differed in the number of affected families. Molo district has 2,023 affected families while Jaro has 2,965.

In previous flood occurrence, the district of Jaro is hardly hit by floodwaters.

While, in Arevalo district, there are 11 barangays affected with 1,347 families affected. There are also 227 households in Barangay Sooc, Arevalo who were evacuated. They temporarily sought shelter in the barangay center.

Gregorio said they don't expect that the number of affected barangays and families will still rise since the floodwaters had already settled. The barangay officials who visited their office Thursday were the barangays who have yet to receive their relief goods from the welfare office.

The city social welfare staff is also closely coordinating with barangay officials to make sure that all the affected families have received their food assistance from the city government.