Marines take over relief ops for Kalamansig, Lebak flood victims

SULTAN KUDARAT --- Authorities linked up late Tuesday with 2,346 isolated families in Kalamansig and Lebak towns, two days after flash floods destroyed the roads linking them to municipal centers.Personnel of the 1stMarine Brigade and local officials led by Kalamansig Mayor Ronan Garcia had initially distributed three truckloads of relief supplies to the flood-stricken folks, delivered by M-35 military trucks.The displaced villagers, mostly residents of the hinterland Barangay Hinalaan, got disconnected from the municipal capitals of the adjoining Lebak and Kalamansig towns after rampaging floods destroyed the farm-to-market roads straddling through their enclaves. The local government units there and the Marines assigned in the affected areas have initiated relief operations, Lt. Col. Markton Abo, civil-military relations staff of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said Wednesday.The Marine units in the two towns are under the operational control of 6thID, which covers the provinces of Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and several towns in Lanao del Sur.Abo said the commander of 6thID, Major Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr., is ready to dispatch Army personnel to Lebak and Kalamansig, about 90 kilometers from here, to help the Marines if necessary.The affected villagers are residing in mountain ranges around Barangay Hinalaan at the border of the adjoining Lebak and Kalamansig towns, mostly scattered in now agricultural enclaves that were once tropical forest lands loggers ravaged from the early 1960s until the 1980s.Garcia said rampaging floodwaters spawned by heavy rains last weekend scoured portions of the farm-to-market roads linking their villages to the barangays where they buy food, fuel and other needed daily provisions.Abo said the provincial government of Sultan Kudarat had assured local officials to immediately dispatch road-building equipment needed to repair the damaged arterial networks.Garcia said workers of the Sultan Kudarat Electric Cooperative are now reconnecting the power lines damaged by trees felled by strong winds that battered the municipality amid heavy rains that caused rivers to swell and inundate villages.Worst hit by the flash floods were Barangays Poral, Obial, Limulan, Santa Maria, Hinalaan and Cadiz in Kalamansig and Poloy-Poloy, Salaman and Ragandang in Lebak.Rampaging floodwaters also destroyed a bridge in Barangay Ragandang, home to mixed Muslim and Christian settlers, and scoured nearby portions of a farm-to-market road.