The tropical depression “Verbena” poured a week’s worth of rain in just a few hours when it made landfall in Negros, triggering massive floods that drove nearly 11,000 residents in Bacolod to seek emergency shelter.
Bacolod Mayor Greg Gasataya said per report from the local disaster management team it recorded 70.5 millimeters of rainfall in a span of four hours compared to a typical average of 10mm per day.
This caused all of Bacolod’s rivers to overflow and reach critical levels on Tuesday morning, he explained.
The flooding also turned 3 major highways of Bacolod, the Araneta, Lacson and Circumferencial Rd, into river making it unpassable to small vehicles.
As floodwater continues to rise, residents in Purok Mars, Barangay Singcang Airport, were forced to scramble onto rooftops to escape rising floodwaters. Floodwater also submerged its gymnasium where people sought shelter, forcing people to moved to the rooftop.
Gasataya said that while the city conducted preemptive and forced evacuations, some residents had to be rescued after initially refusing to leave their homes as the waters rose.
Based on data released by the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, over 15,000 individuals were evacuated from 33 barangays.
At least half of the evacuees were residents of Singcang-Airport according to the data.
Councilor Ceasar Distrito, a resident of Singcang and former village chief, said it was for the first time for the majority of the barangay to be submerged in water.
In Villamonte, a house was also reportedly swept away by the raging water. No official data on the damaged houses has been released yet.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the water already receded making roads passable.
