Over 5,000 families forced to evacuate due to flooding in Bulacan

Over 5,000 families or 21,000 individuals in Bulacan province were forced to evacuate over the weekend due to the floods brought about by the continuous rains, according to local government officials.

The latest figures were coming from an interview with Bulacan Vice Governor Alex Castro, who said the province is already prepared to declare a state of calamity, as reported by Chino Gaston on GMA’s “24 Oras Weekend” on Sunday.

An area of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) past the Viaduct in Pampanga also experienced flooding, causing traffic to be at a standstill as the water flowed into nearby farms.

“Ang NLEX was forced to close ‘yung Bocaue area natin, sapagkat medyo mahirap pong daanan,” Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) spokesperson Julius Corpuz said.

“Sa laki po ng volume ng dumadaan ng tubig, hindi rin po kakayanin ng submersible pump ‘yan sa loob ng expressway,” he added.

(NLEX was forced to close the Boacaue portion because it was hard to pass through. With the huge volume of water, the submersible pump in the expressway would not have been able to cater to this.)

For his part, Governor Daniel Fernando said that out of the 24 cities and towns in the province, two cities and 14 towns experienced heavy floods over the weekend due to the continuous rains.

Fernando flagged the release of water from the Bustos Dam by the dam’s management and by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), which he said may have contributed to the flooding.

“Nag-report sila na unti-unti daw na pinapakawalan nila since pa ‘yung ganyan [na] sitwasyon,” he said in the same report.

“Sabi ko e di dapat inunti-unti na talaga nila, pero bigla nilang nagbuhos ng malaki… galit na galit nga ako eh,” he added.

(They reported that they released gradually before this situation. I said they should really do it gradually, but then they released suddenly. I was furious.)

GMA Integrated News is still trying to reach the NIA for comment, but the Bustos Dam management confirmed that it had to make a release after the water reached spilling level.

The water level has since returned to the normal level, but one of the gates of the dam remains open. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA Integrated News