ABUCAY, Bataan — Three villages in this town on Thursday remained buried in thick mud left by the massive flood that hit the province Sunday.
Heavy equipment like backhoe and dump truck were being used but residents of Barangays Gabon, Omboy and Wawa were seen continuously shoveling the mud.
The flow of traffic along the MacArthur Highway in Abucay was slow due to piles of mud on the sides of the road that were still not removed.
Thick mud covered the streets in Gabon, rendering these not passable even to tricycles. Residents hiked the streets, some wearing rain boots and many on bare feet.
Some mattresses, sala sets, cabinets, linoleum and other belongings still to be washed were dumped along the side of the muddy road.
There are some resident-volunteers who were loading mud on a truck to be dumped on a vacant lot belonging to the truck owner.
Lucy Manlapid, 63, said the neck-deep flood in her place in Gabon was the worst in over 10 years.
“I hope that our road be cleaned soon so that we could pass by,” she said.
Other residents said the flood last Sunday was worsened by the collapse of a foot bridge and portions of a dike in Gabon.
One of them, Elcid Flores, said by morning of Sunday, water was already coming out of the swollen river and inundating Gabon and adjacent villages.
He said that flood water was more than six feet deep on the street and breast-deep inside their house.
Flores also said he and his wife have been removing mud from their house for five days now.
“We always experienced flooding here but this is the biggest since year 2002,” he said. PNA-northboundasia.com