Palace to flood-prone area residents: Heed calls to evacuate

Malacañang on Saturday appealed to residents in flood-prone areas to heed the calls of their local officials to evacuate their homes lest they be trapped. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte made the appeal even as she said Malacañang wants to know why floods caught many Central Luzon residents by surprise. “We hope residents are now ready, and if local authorities call on them to evacuate they would do so," Valte said on government-run dzRB radio. Many areas in Central Luzon, including Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Ecija, were flooded after dams in the area released water to prepare for Typhoon Quiel (Nalgae). The typhoon, which made landfall in Isabela Saturday morning, came less than a week after Typhoon Pedring (Nesat) pounded parts of Northern Luzon. As of Saturday morning, Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda made a call to some 20,000 families near the Pampanga River to evacuate their homes amid possible flooding, radio dzBB reported. On the other hand, Valte said the Palace wants to get to the bottom of how the floods caught Central Luzon residents by surprise. She said representatives of agencies involved in the release of water from dams met Friday night following flooding in parts of Central Luzon. These included the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), she said. “We have to get to the bottom of, yan kailangan natin malaman (We have to get to the bottom of this, we want to know what happened)," she said. Citing initial reports from Friday’s meeting, she said the DILG checked with the local government units concerned and found they had been warned that the dam gates would be opened. “The DILG, upon checking with the LGUs, they got the notice the dam gates will be opened but the LGUs said there are people who refused to evacuate," she said. — LBG, GMA News