Residents near Marikina River evacuated; all floodgates opened

By MARK MERUEÑAS, GMA News

Published July 16, 2014 12:14pm

Hundreds of residents living near the Marikina River have been evacuated Wednesday after the water level exceeded 16 meters, which prompted authorities to raise Alert Level 2.

All of the eight floodgates of the Manggahan Floodway at the foot of the Marikina River have been opened to help ease the swelling, authorities said.

According to the official Twitter account of the Marikina City local government, a total of 92 families or 562 individuals from three barangays have been given shelter at different evacuation centers in the city.

The figures on the evacuees so far are as follows:

Bgy. H. Bautista - 58 families or 388 individuals
Bgy. Malanday - 18 families or 106 individuals
Bgy. Nangka - 16 families or 70 individuals

The residents were evacuated after the water level at the river reached 16 meters at around 10:40 a.m.

#marikinariver Alert Level 2 raised: 16m water level as of 10:40 am. All 8 floodgates open.

— Marikina LGU (@MarikinaLGU) July 16, 2014

Around noon, the water level had gone down to 15.7 meters, prompting authorities to bring the alert warning back to Alert Level 1.

#marikinariver 15.7m water level as of 12:01 nn. Down from 16m earlier.

— PIO Marikina (@MarikinaPIO) July 16, 2014

The local government has yet to respond to Twitter queries on whether classes would be suspended on Thursday.

The Manggahan Floodway is an artificial waterway built in 1986 to prevent the Pasig River from overflowing by diverting water from the Marikina River toward the Laguna Lake.

However, the floodway's 260-meter width and 2,400-cubic-meters-per-second water capacity had been dramatically reduced by encroachments from illegal settlers residing along the banks of the floodway. — RSJ, GMA News

Tags: glenda, weather, rammasun, marikinacity, marikinariver