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caption of the picture: Mourners of the two dead children who were swept away by Typhoon Sendong's floods in Brgy. Apolong, Valencia town, Negros Oriental province, make their way to the town church and lay to rest the bodies of Bengeline Cadalin, 14, and her brother, Rey, 12, on Dec. 21, 2011, four days after Sendong dumped a month's worth of rains in the province. As the Okoy River swelled in the morning of Dec. 17, Bengeline and Rey were left behind in their house as their parents brought four of their younger brothers and sisters to safety. When their father came back for them, the water already washed away their home and the two siblings. Their bodies were found the following day. (Photo by Rachelle Nessia/PIA)


by Gerry Zaragoza

DUMAGUETE CITY (PIA), Dec. 21 –- The funeral march from the village progressed slowly on its way to the church of the Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish in Valencia town for the final blessing from the priest before burial.

Village men bore two white coffins as they crossed the river on a narrow makeshift wooden bridge. People washing their clothes and bathing in the river stopped what they were doing as the funeral march passed by.

This Okoy river was the same river that swelled and overflowed and took the lives of Bengeline Cadalin, 14, and her brother Rey, 12, when tropical storm “Sendong “ crossed Mindanao Friday and Saturday and dumped rains in Negros Oriental as well.

The swollen Okoy river had washed out the bridge and several houses in the area in Barangay Apolong in Valencia town, Negros Oriental.

Valencia, Dumaguete City and Sibulan town were the hardest hit areas in Negros Oriental when “Sendong” dumped 145 mm. of rain from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, which is worth a month’s rain. This caused rampaging water to race down the mountains, swelling the Okoy and Banica river systems and flooding low-lying areas.

The local disaster management office reported 37 dead in the area. Two of them were from the Cadalin family.

The parents of the Cadalin siblings had brought four of their younger brothers and sisters to safety as the river swelled. Left at the house for pickup later were Bengeline and Rey.

Bengeline, the eldest, picked up the family’s cow and brought it to higher ground. Her brother Rey later looked for her. They never found each other, but Bengeline returned home. That’s when the water washed away their home. The bodies of the two were found the following day.

Those people affected by the floods here are starting to pick up the broken pieces of their lives. Manolito Alpubar, 38, was trying to save what he could from what remained of his house in barangay Candau-ay in Dumaguete.

He lives in a cluster of duplexes built seven years ago through Gawad Kalinga. He said the Banica river rose at 9 a.m. and for two hours swept away four of the duplexes.

“Thank, God, it was daytime,” he said in the vernacular. Otherwise, many people, especially children, would have been killed as what happened in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities where the flashfloods surprised neighborhoods in the dead of the night and left hundreds dead.

Alpubar and his neighbors helped each other bring everyone to safety.

His family of five children are now staying with relatives. In his neighborhood, four were killed by floods.

Mrs. Luz Pinili Bunol, 61, and her sister Lourdes were loading clothes full of mud at the back of their van for washing elsewhere. There is no water and electricity in their area on Palinpinon Road in Valencia.

One 200-meter section of the Palinpinon Road was washed out by the Okoy river.

Lourdes recalled that the floodwaters came and had she not clung to a post at the porch of their house, she would have been swept away.

In barangay Tubtubon, Purok Apitong, 56 families are living under tarpaulin tents while their barangay chief, Desiada Enoferio, was negotiating with the Sibulan mayor for help to help them build new homes in a new flood-free area.

The 56 families used to live near an irrigation canal whose water was swollen from the spillover from Okoy river.

Arnold Mora, 38, who lives in Purok Apitong said the flood came at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday. “The rushing water came so fast. We hardly had time to save anything of value,” he said.

Rudy Magbanua, 57, a small businessman who also lives in Purok Apitong, said all his appliances, including TV set, refrigerator, component and amplifier, were destroyed by the flood.

The residents don’t know where to go because they have been forbidden to rebuild their houses in their devastated area. They are waiting for authorities to give them direction and assistance.(PIA 7)

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