By Lito Rulona

SOME 20 families evacuated to safer grounds as big waves damaged houses and other properties in Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental, since Tuesday.

Misamis Oriental’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) also listed two deaths resulting from the bad weather early this week.

The council’s executive director, Teddy Sabugaa, said the evacuees were from Barangay Dampil in Lagonglong, a village that was threatened by strong winds and big waves.

Sabugaa said  officials in Salay and Balingasag towns also prepared to evacuate residents as water levels rose.

PDRRMC alerted officials across the province and urged them to continue being vigilant throughout the month.

Last weekend, some 16 families from Magsaysay town also evacuated to safer grounds due to the storm surge.

The Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) in the region said it has contnued gathering data to assess the extent of the damages in northern Mindanao.

Initial reports from the OCD have it that some 519 families were adversely affected and brought to different evacuation centers in Magsaysay town in Misamis Oriental and the towns of Kapatagan, Sagad and Sultan Naga Dimaporo in Lanao del Norte.

OCD regional director Ana Caneda said 16 families were affected in Magsaysay, 211 families in the municipality of Sagad, 297 in Sultan Naga Dimaporo and Kapatagan.

Last week, over 700 families were affected when a flashflood hit Camiguin.

Meanwhile, Sabugaa said the PDRRMC recorded two deaths as a result of the bad weather in Misamis Oriental since last weekend.

He identified the victims as Augusto Alyuryop of Barangay Campo, Kinoguitan, and Morben Cagadas of Barangay Bobontugan, Jasaan.

Authorities said the two victims died when coconut trees fell on them due to strong winds.

Cagadas’s  mother Merly and brother Nilo were injured.