MALABON City Mayor Jeannie Sandoval said on Sunday that equipment are in place for the rainy season.
Sandoval told The Manila Times via Viber that the city has laid down contingency plans to ease the impacts of floods and La Niña.
"With our contingency plans already in place, especially the standby of rescue equipment, among others, we could guarantee that 'Malabueños' are safe and ready," the city's first female mayor said.
Sandoval and City Administrator Alexander Rosete appealed for the cooperation of local officials and city residents to ensure everyone's safety during heavy rains and destructive typhoons.
"The city government would always be ready to assist our residents particularly this season wherein we expect to experience more volumes of rainfall due to storms that would enter the country especially in the last quarter of the year," Rosete told TMT.
Malabon Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) Roderick Tongol said that the city government has established protocols during typhoons and flash floods in line with the Department of the Interior and Local Government's "Operation Listo" – a program that aims to strengthen disaster and emergency preparedness of local government units using the whole-of-government approach.
Through the program, the city government will alert and coordinate with all MDRRMO council response clusters and barangay (village) disaster risk reduction and management council to ensure that preparations and operations are conducted during and even before thunderstorms and other calamities occur, Tongol said.
On the other hand, the City Engineering Office said that all 54 pumping stations near waterways in the city are ready to operate when water levels in rivers rise.
The city has 101 floodgates that control water flow so that villages would not be affected severely by heavy flooding, Rosete said.
"The city government's rescue boats are ready for deployment in case they receive reports of stranded residents during heavy rains, while the three flood sensors and rain gauges that monitor the water level along Tullahan River are working," Rosete added.
He said that the city's Command and Communication Center (CCC) that has over 100 closed-circuit cameras installed in different areas operates 24/7 to monitor and ensure immediate response to calamities.
Malabon's CCC is also equipped with a top-level communication and monitoring system to strengthen disaster response operations, Tongol said.
Last April, Sandoval and the MDRRMO held a flood drill in Barangay Dampalit to share knowledge about disaster response and evacuation plans to about 100 residents.
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