ALMOST 2,000 families in Brooke’s Point, still reeling from flash floods due to rains in late December, have been evacuated as of Thursday morning due to renewed flooding triggered by strong downpour from a low pressure area.
The town, located in the southern part of Palawan, was declared under a month-long state of calamity on Dec. 27 due to rains from a shear line.
This week’s rains affected 17 of the town’s 18 villages, according to the municipal information office, citing reports from the local disaster management office.
There were 1,971 families in the 17 barangays who were moved to 32 evacuation centers, the information office said.
As of 11 a.m. Thursday, it said six villages were still isolated due to flooding and several road sections that were not passable.
Emergency teams from the Palawan provincial government and other towns such as neighboring Bataraza and El Nido in the north were deployed to assist in the response operations, according to the Brooke’s Point local government.
During the late December flooding, 753 families were evacuated, including 16 whose houses were destroyed.
The coastal town of Brooke’s Point is categorized as a first class municipality with a population of almost 74,000 as of the 2020 census.
State weather agency PAGASA, in its bulletin as of 10 a.m. Thursday, said the low pressure area (LPA) was located 185 kilometers west-northwest of Coron, Palawan.
“This weather disturbance remains less likely to develop into a tropical depression within the next 24 hours,” PAGASA said.
However, the LPA and the northeast monsoon were expected to bring moderate to intense rains over Bicol region and the provinces of Quezon and Aurora.
Light to moderate with some heavy downpours were expected over the following areas: Metro Manila; the regions of Calabarzon and Mimaropa, which covers Palawan; and the Visayas islands in central Philippines. — MSJ