Residents of Oas, Albay, cleaned their streets after severe tropical storm Kristine | Photo by Mavic Conde/Bulatlat

ALBAY, Legazpi City — Oas Mayor has asked the national government for financial aid to urgently reconstruct the town’s collapsed dike, causing life-threatening mud floodings in downtown villages along Cabilogan River during the onslaught of severe tropical storm Kristine (Trami).

“We ask PBBM to help us urgently reconstruct the collapsed dam because everytime it rains the mudwater will spill over, making our post-storm efforts futile,” Mayor Domingo Escoto Jr. told Bulatlat in an interview.

Escoto claimed that this is the town’s most devastating storm experience to date due to mud, unlike in the past when clearing operations could be done within five days.

He said the river’s endpoint, Bato Lake in Camarines Sur, is already silted and requires an outlet; otherwise, neighboring towns will always flood, as was the case with Libon and Oas.

“We might need semi-dam dikes to hold the river’s water capacity, while the Bato Lake needs desiltation. But our urgent need is to block the side of the river with collapsed dike,” he said.

As of October 24 data of the local government of Oas, 16, 587 families, or 73,206 persons are affected by the storm. Casualties, if any, is not yet reflected in the report provided to Bulatlat.

Meanwhile, affected residents in Barangay Iraya Sur claimed that they already knew that this would happen.

Raquel Dineros, whose house along the dike trail was swept by the flood, said she already expected it for several reasons.

One is that in November 2020, Super Typhoon Rolly (Goni) wore down their dike, which had the lowest barrier in the downtown area. Its poor quality has also not escaped her.

“You’ve seen it, right? It wasn’t evenly filled out. The weakest corner easily gave way because the sand bagging as a filler wasn’t enough to support the surface,” Dineros said.

A laborer who was fixing the groundwater source of a household next to Dineros’ now-empty place chimed in, saying “there was no bar reinforcements here, only rocks plastered with cement.”

The laborer who asked for anonymity caught the difference in quality because he claimed to have previously worked on a commercial seawall construction project in Legazpi City.

Raquel Dineros (wearing gray shirt), together with other Oas residents | Photo by Mavic Conde/Bulatlat

The collapsed dike costed Dineros their family house, with attached piggery and a stock room, a portion of her neighbor’s house including the toilet, as well as leaving the entire town with a pile of chores that involve a lot of cleaning and washing.

Since she’s a Barangay Tanod (village watch), her two children were already at the Barangay Hall at the time to seek shelter, while she helped with assisting fellow residents who needed evacuation, including her neighbor who had to run for her life when the dike collapsed.

“It felt like we’re paralyzed after losing everything, but at least there was no casualty in the family,” Dineros said.

She hopes that aids, especially clean water supply is on its way.

“I’ve got two dry undies and shorts. We need clean water most especially for drinking and cooking.”

Albay has been declared under the state of calamity, alongside Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes. In the entire Bicol Region, over 400,000 families, or two million individuals, have been affected by the typhoon. (JJE, RTS)

Disclosure: This article was edited on October 29, 2024 to change the identification of Kristine as “typhoon” to “severe tropical storm”.