Mayor: Cainta now better prepared for rains, floods

After what the town went through during the onslaught of Tropical Storm Ondoy in 2009, the local government of Cainta in Rizal, said it was now better prepared for the heavy rains and floods such as those brought by Tropical Storm Mario last week.

 

In an interview with Unang Balita, Cainta Mayor Kit Nieto said that while Mario affected the same number of people, it paled in comparison to what residents of Cainta during Ondoy.

 

 

"Sa dami ng apektado, same number of people, but in terms of magnitude niya and volume of water, Ondoy was far, far worse than what we experienced here," he said. "We [had] enough time to prepare for something big... Lots of preparations [were] made so we were able to contain the water within 24 to 36 hours."

 

Cainta was placed under a state of calamity on Friday due to the storm, which dumped half-a-month's worth of rain on Metro Manila and other provinces in Luzon in a span of just 12 hours.

 

Nieto said flooding in most parts of the municipality had significantly subsided within 24 hours, with only one of the 24 evacuation centers still open to accommodate residents that live near the flood way.

 

While the local government is working on giving a solution to the perennial problem of flooding in their town, Nieto said that the situation was a "national issue" that could be solved by either a "wider river channel" that would divert the water away from the town, or by "creating a lot of cistern tanks that could hold water until drainages [would] be able to accommodate 'yung water na dumadaloy."

 

Cainta was one of those hit hardest by Ondoy, which dumped more than a month's worth of rain over Metro Manila in just one day. 

 

Government records showed that Ondoy—described as "an extreme weather event"—killed 337 persons, and damaged P10.45 billion worth of crops and infrastructure. —Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/NB, GMA News