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More than 1,000 homes in Banaue were damaged due to flashfloods caused by the southwest monsoon, said the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) Sunday.
Frankie Cortez, chief of operations section of OCD-CAR, told dzBB: “For now, the overall total of the damaged houses is 1,048 in the town of Banaue and one (house) in Barangay Bokiawan, Hungduan.”
Of the total damaged houses, 1,044 were “partially damaged” while four were “totally damaged”.
Cortez said 13 families are staying at evacuation centers while five families were “outside evacuation centers” or staying with their families and relatives.
Banaue was placed under a state of calamity since it was the area most affected by rain, which occurred Thursday.
There was no problem with the flow of goods from CAR and only the Banaue-Hungduan-Benguet Boundary Road in Barangay Poblacion as of today was closed, he said.
Warning signs had been placed on the boundary road to prevent accidents while an alternate route had been established, he added.
Cortez said ''there is an ongoing comprehensive assessment and the DENR (Department of Natural Resources), together with our local government unit, has sent people to assess the damages incurred.”
“The Department of Agriculture (DA) has also sent people to assess the damage in our agriculture and to give buffer stocks as assistance to our farmers,” he added.
The DA said in its bulletin late Saturday that damage was estimated at P14.6 million, affecting 684 farmers.
Affected products included rice and high-value crops, it added.
Last Thursday, July 7, heavy rains caused landslides and flashfloods in Ifugao province.
This prompted around 500 families to flee their homes according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s report released last Friday. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
