RIZAL — Individuals found ways to get past the knee-deep to waist-deep flooding on a major thoroughfare in Cainta, Rizal on Wednesday.

A resident along Imelda Avenue told ABS-CBN News that the water level began to rise as early as 6 a.m due to the continuous rains.

Most of them said they had no choice but to get through Imelda Avenue to get to the Cainta junction.

Christopher Surbano, a backhoe operator from San Mateo, said he waited along the thoroughfare for about four hours and was already late for work.

“Sa Sierra Valley. Magta-trabaho ako. Dapat kanina pa eh. Sobrang lakas ng ulan, baha pa,” he said.

(I'm headed to Sierra Valley for work. I should have been there earlier but the rain was so strong and there is a flood)

Surbano said passing through Imelda Avenue is the only way to get to his workplace in Taytay.

“Nagko-commute ako. Eh, ngayon wala, hindi rin makadaan ngayon eh. Ngayon lang ako nakakita ng tubig na ganito,” he explained.

(I usually commute but no vehicles can get through. I have not seen floods this high before) 

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Surbano was supposed to wait for one of the six-wheeler trucks offering free rides to pass by, but ended up going through the flood on foot.  

Other pedestrians rushed to get on the six-wheeler trucks and  pickup trucks offering free rides.

Some pedicab drivers charged around P100 to ferry people across the flood. 

Meanwhile, residents in a nearby village braved waist-deep floods and to seek higher ground. 

Some parked their cars outside the village gate to keep them from being submerged in the rising water.

The Cainta Municipal Disaster and Risk Reduction Management said search and rescue operations are ongoing for the 14-year old male who went missing on Tuesday after falling into a creek in Barangay Sto. Domingo.

According to former Cainta mayor Keith Nieto, about 142 families have taken shelter in the town's evacuation centers.

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