Carmen residents fear another flood 2 years later as shear line inundates village

CARMEN, Davao del Norte (MindaNews / 21 February) — Hundreds of residents from Barangay Guadalupe in Carmen, Davao del Norte are nervously monitoring the Bingcungan and Libuganon waterways, three days after a shear line threatened areas in Mindanao.

Evacuees in Barangay Guadalupe, Carmen municipality in Davao del Norte respond to a DSWD worker profiling victims of the floods in the area Saturday morning (21 February 2026). MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C. BUENO

MindaNews chanced upon residents along the Carmen-Tagum boundary camped by the roadside who said they evacuated as early as 1 p.m. Friday (Feb. 20), hours amid scattered rain showers.

Ironically, the camps are located exactly where the floods happened in 2024.

Jo-Ann Dolor, 45, said that she had previously suffered trauma from two years ago when portions of Guadalupe were inundated and left some homes underwater.

On Feb. 2, 2024, the Tuganay Bridge in Carmen was impassable to motorists when waters from the Tuganay River overflowed.

To Dolor, the experience was trauma, her belongings wiped away and damaged by muds from floods.

Junerey Palacios, leader of Purok 4 in Guadalupe, said that the local government was still assessing the situation at their area.

Dolor and her family, all 10 individuals from four different households, were relatively lucky to avail of a tent from the Department of Social Welfare and Development that could fit all of them while the rest of the communities make do.

“We don’t have a tent of our own,” Dolor said in the vernacular, adding that there was only one tent for this purok consisting of 192 individuals as of 8 p.m. Friday.

Albert Andrada, 41, prepares lunch for 15 fellow evacuees in Barangay Guadalupe, Carmen municipality in Davao del Norte on Saturday morning (21 February 2026). MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C. BUENO

Around 52 households were affected from Purok 4, according to the evacuees.

They are awaiting the advice of barangay officials here before they decide to move to a more secure evacuation area at the municipal hall.

Nearby, towards a bridge across the Libuganon River, Mercy Deciardo, 55, seemed anxious around the tent of neighbor Annaliza Andrada, 36.

While Andrada and the rest of her family of 15 individuals were safe under a tarp, Mercy said she still had to fetch some wood to help her family start their own shelter. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)