Floods hit around 100 barangays in Leyte province after tropical depression Agaton dumped heavy rains over parts of the Visayas and Mindanao, Governor Leopoldo Petilla said on Monday.

“As of 1 a.m. today, more than a hundred barangays were flooded in 19 municipalities of the 41 in Leyte,” Petilla told ANC.

He said Abuyog town and Baybay City were the hardest-hit areas in the province.

In Abuyog, a landslide at around 3 a.m. damaged some houses, said the governor.

Petilla said about 145 families were staying in evacuation centers in the province. Authorities have started to send help to affected residents, he said.

The governor said weather patterns appeared to be changing and were badly affecting his province.

“I mean this is already April. Normally ang April natin dito sa Leyte is very very hot. You don’t have to do anything, you just sit there papawisan ka. Pero ngayon, this is totally different ng April ngayon na talagang, since I think last week, last week maulan na dito, tuloy-tuloy ang ulan,” the official said.

“There are some barangays now that first time na binabaha,” he added.

(Normally April here in Leyte is very hot. You don’t have to do anything, you just sit there and you'll sweat. But it April is totally different now. It has been raining since last week, I think. There are some barangays that were flooded for the first time.)

Leyte needs to review its disaster response plans after Agaton’s onslaught, Patilla said.

“I think we need to put more scientific, to be more scientific para mas ma-predict pa natin ang impact ng mga calamities (so that we can predict the impact of calamities),” he said.

--ANC, 11 April 2022

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