La Trinidad, Benguet areas experience flooding due to Henry

Several areas in La Trinidad, Benguet experienced flooding due to heavy rains brought by Typhoon Henry.

According to Claire Lacanilao’s Saturday “24 Oras Weekend” report, authorities and residents conducted cleared debris and declogged canals to prevent further flooding in their communities.

“Dine-declog lang po namin itong kanal para at least tuloy tuloy yung daluyan ng tubig papunta doon sa mas malaking kanal para hindi sila mag-flood dito. Kasi parang mas mababa yung flooring nila dyan kesa dito sa kanal sa kalsada,” Rose Fattom, barangay official in Barangay Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, said.

(We are just declogging this canal so that at least the water channel continues to go to the bigger canal so that they don't flood here. Because it seems like their flooring is lower than it is over here in the canal on the road.)

“Nililinis nila lahat ng possible na pagdaanan ng tubig just in case na bumuhos na naman yung tubig galing sa bundok,” resident Gia Borja said.

(They clean all the possible water passages in case the water pours from the mountain again.)

Meanwhile, farmers continued to arrange their crops despite the heavy rains to prevent damage to their strawberry farms.

“Tapos pinapala para hindi matira yung tanim at saka pangit din po kasi kapag lalo na yung strawberry masisira,” strawberry farmer Christian Tagubat said.

(We arranged the plants so that they would not be damaged, especially the strawberries.)

Tourist places in Baguio City were also affected due to severe rains.

“Medyo mahirap po pumunta sa mga destination kasi maulan yung panahon so yung mga list ng mga spot dito sa Baguio, hindi namin mapuntahan. Sana po maging okay na mamayang hapon, kasi kaya kami pumunta eh birthday ko po kasi,” tourist Robert Velasco said.

(It's a bit difficult to go to destinations because of the rainy weather, so we cannot go to the list of spots here in Baguio. I hope it will be okay tomorrow afternoon, because that's why we went here - because it's my birthday.)

“Syempre po yung mga expected namin na lugar na mavi-visit po namin medyo nagkaroon ng delays hindi nakapagikot at saka nga po medyo foggy yung area,” tourist Joan De Luna said.

(Of course, we will be delayed in the places we expected to visit and we were not able to go around. And besides, the area was a bit foggy.)

Authorities also conducted clearing operations in Baguio City as several trees were felled due to the typhoon.

Weather bureau PAGASA said Henry would continue moving northward, passing very close to or even making landfall over the Ryukyu archipelago's southern islands before exiting the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) late Saturday night. — Richa Noriega/DVM, GMA News