Cateel Evacuees Return Home When Aragon Dam Seen at Safe Level

Having gotten over fears about the impending overflow of Aragon Dam, evacuees this morning went back home when the Incident Command Team (ICT) declared them “safe” to go home.

ICT secretary and Municipal Local Government Operations Officer Ryan Masagnay revealed in a phone inquiry that the water level of Aragon Dam ebbed at a level of 19.0 meters this morning, from its previous critically high level of 20.3 meters last Monday. The 20.3 level was viewed as tipping point of overflowing. Aragon Dam is situated in the barangay of Aragon, about 12 km west of Cateel Poblacion.

The dam is part of the Cateel Irrigation Project viewed to be the biggest project by the Mindanao Rural Development Project. Provincial Governor Nelson Dayanghirang together with officials of the Municipality of Cateel set up Monday evening (Jan 23) the Incident Command Post (ICP) based on reports that the Aragon Dam contained so much volume of water expected to overflow.

In a separate interview, 67th Infantry Battalion commander, Lt Col Michelle Anayron said the provincial government immediately pre-positioned seven dump-trucks while the municipal LGU also deployed 5 dump-trucks. The 67th IB sent five units of KM450 military vehicles pre-positioned for possible mass evacuation while the Philippine National Police also deployed Mahendra vehicles. As of 11:30 this morning, Cateel ICP registered 342 family-evacuees in four evacuation centers but Masagnay said the number could go high as families in one evacuation center had not been accounted for.

Tapped as evacuation centers were San Isidro Elementary School with 214 families; Yahuno Relocation Site, 35; Cateel Central Elementary School, 77; Cateel Vocational High School, 16. The ICT had yet to receive data on the number of evacuees housed in Cateel National Agricultural High School.

Should Aragon Dam overflowed, four barangays would have been directly affected particularly Aragon, San Alfonso, Taytayan and Alegria, Masagnay said. However, aside from those pre-evacuated due to the impending overflow, some residents of barangays Mainit, Sta Filomena, Abejod, San Rafael and those in the Poblacion had already left their homes due to massive flooding.

Masagnay said the MLGU relief operation started as early as January 22 (Sunday) when heavy rains started and went on continuously the following day. A total of 2,021 relief packs were distributed on January 22; 881 on January 23; 3,684 on January 24. Relief distribution today was done at the barangay level as evacuees were going back home, he said.

The Provincial Government augmented relief good supplies and sent a total of 6,720 packs Tuesday night. Masagnay said 5,000 packs more were due to be delivered this morning. (PIA 11/ Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)