By HENRY EMPEÑO | July 24, 2025

MASINLOC, Zambales — More Zambales residents evacuated their homes in coastal communities and low-lying areas on Wednesday and Thursday, as protective dikes gave way due to severe flooding and storm surges brewed by heavy rains from the “Habagat” or the southwest monsoon.

The Zambales Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) reported that as of 8:00 am on Thursday, July 24, a total of 3,690 families composed of 11,774 individuals in the province have already been affected by incessant rains and the resulting floods.

Of these, a total of 1,996 families or 5,832 individuals have evacuated mostly to schools and barangay halls, or sought shelter with relatives.

The biggest number of evacuees were recorded in Santa Cruz town, where floodwaters reached 4 feet in some areas early Thursday, said PDRRMO head Rolex Estella.

Estella said the office of Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. has been providing packs of essential foodstuffs to affected residents since Sunday when heavy rains from Typhoon Dante started flooding in low-lying areas and the provincial government began pre-emptive evacuation.

On the other hand, the Zambales Provincial Health Office (PHO) has been monitoring evacuation centers to assess the availability of potable water supply and functional sanitation facilities.

PHO head Dr. Noel C. Bueno said provincial health teams have distributed Aquatabs water purification tablets to ensure safe drinking for evacuees, and were placed on alert for potential disease outbreaks in evacuation centers.

Meanwhile, more than P1.69 billion worth of slope protection infrastructure in the province were totally damaged, according to reports complied by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district offices here.

Most of these are river flood control structures that were breached by strong currents in lahar-filled waterways in the southern towns of San Antonio, San Felipe, and San Narciso.

River dikes in Santa Cruz, Candelaria, Masinloc, and Cabangan up north also gave way due to swollen rivers and creeks, the DPWH said.

The biggest infrastructure damage was placed at P1 billion in San Felipe town where surging waves battered the seawall along the coastal road at Sitio Tektek in Barangay Sindol.

Zambales Provincial Engineer Domingo Mariano said provincial engineering teams and local government units are closely monitoring the situation at lahar-silted waterways like Maculcol River and Pamatawan River, as further dike damages might bring about severe flooding in the towns of San Felipe, San Narciso and San Antonio.

Meanwhile, the agriculture and fisheries sector here recorded more than P2.34 million in damages to rice crops, fishponds and fishing vessels.

This, as heavy rainfall inundated some 251.6 hectares of rice fields in the towns of Santa Cruz and San Antonio, as well as five tilapia aquafarms in San Marcelino. Two fishing boats worth a total of P100,000 were also destroyed in San Antonio.

The PDRRMO issued early Thursday “Orange” heavy rainfall warning over eight towns in the central and southern parts of Zambales, and “Yellow” alert over the five northern municipalities, as “Emong” intensified into a severe tropical storm and was expected to enhance the effects of “habagat” or southwest monsoon over Zambales. §