…as it is! By Ed Montalvan

The CdeO Floods

Several people called up to ask me about the floods that the city experienced the last few days. I grew up in Burgos and I know what happened, at least during my lifetime.

Somebody said that one of the radio stations reported that the swelling of the Cagayan de Oro river was the biggest in history and that is not true.

I cannot tell you about how it was before I was born but in 1955 there was a big flood and the river grew to a level that it covered Burgos Street at where Toribio Chaves is right now.

The highest point of Burgos is at City hall, where it used to be the City Fire Department. That area was a little elevated but when you go down to Burgos the whole street was covered.

I still remember that very well.

At that time my father used to tell us that every 25 years the river swells but the one before that was in 1941 and he said that was only a 14 year gap. He didn’t like that because he thought it was dangerous.

Then in the 60s (maybe that was 1965 or 1966 because I left Cagayan de Oro after that) the river swelled again but it was only up to the edge of Burgos. The street was never covered by water at the place where we lived.

But as you go down Burgos toward Consolacion the street level goes down and I presume the area would have been covered by then.

Gathering from information that we got, that Saturday, January 2^nd, Kadingilian, Lantapan and Talakag in Bukidnon experienced heavy rains that started at around 5 in the afternoon until about early morning of the 3^rd. The water in these areas flow to the tributaries of the Cagayan de Oro River and this is the reason for the swelling.

As my father told us, this used to happen every 25 years and at that time there were no logging operations and the forest cover was thick. If this happens at shorter intervals then it means this world of ours is getting to be in a very bad shape.

16 barangays were reported flooded with this incident.

The flooding of last January 11 was a little different. The heavy rains fell right here in the lower level and not in the mountains. This is why the Cagayan de Oro River did not swell as much but the smaller rivers all over the city and surrounding municipalities swelled because it could not take the volume of water that it was getting from above.

Here in the city a total of 36 barangays were affected.

The fear that I had was a simultaneous rainfall in the mountains and in the city. This would mean the swelling of the Cagayan de Oro River and the smaller rivers as well. This is exactly what happened last Tuesday, January 13^th.

Although the rains were not all that strong as compared to the two earlier incidents, this was coupled with strong winds that caused 10 foot waves at Macajalar Bay and the swelling of all rivers.

As of 8:15 AM of the 14^th there were already 39 Barangays affected, 14,219 families and 73,971 persons with two reported dead.

This, definitely, is the worst that the city has seen in its entire history.

The big question that we now face is can all these be avoided. It can be to a certain extent. The move of Mayor Tinnex to stop all mining operations in the hinterland barangays is one that can help. A complete stop to all logging operations including the ARMM areas that is adjacent to the city is another.

The engineers would have to work on infrastructures such us the building of dikes in river banks and the clearing water passages.

But what is improtanmt is for everyone to cooperate by disposing their garbage properly, specially the plastic bags used by grocery stores and supermarkets. These things end up in canals and passage ways and they cause flooding when the rains come.

The most important solution we can have to prevent happenings like this is to pray and to ask God for forgiveness and for Him to heal our land.

The Tagalogs have a saying “Sa tao ang gawa, sa Diyos ang Awa.” It simply means Man will have to do all the work to prevent these things and it is up to God to bless his efforts.