No end yet to the suffering of flood-hit Luzon residents
CALASIAO, PANGASINAN—For Fe Margarita Guerrero, 35, a staff member of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in the Ilocos region, the typhoon’s fury struck twice.
She was in a beachfront resort in Bolinao, Pangasinan, participating in a team-building activity, when Typhoon Emong’s (international name: Co-may) intense winds tore through the area.
“The wind howled so loudly and forcefully it felt like the windows would explode. We had to leave our rooms and huddle in the hallway to stay safe,” Guerrero recalled.
Upon returning home to Bacnotan, La Union—just two towns away from Emong’s second landfall—she was devastated to see the aftermath.
“Parang na-blender ang lahat ng gamit [It looked like everything had gone through a blender],” Guerrero said.
She added: “Our cabinets, appliances, even a spare gas tank were all overturned or missing. A tree branch crashed onto the kitchen roof, damaging the gutter.”
Guerrero was just one of the thousands of residents of Luzon who continue to suffer from the devastation of last week’s torrential rains spawned by the southwest monsoon, or “habagat” and successive cyclones capped by Emong, which left a trail of destruction as it lashed northern and central Luzon on July 24 and July 25, battering communities across Pangasinan, La Union, Zambales, and as far north as Batanes, leaving thousands displaced and basic services crippled.
Power outages
As of Monday, the towns of Sudipen, Bangar, Balaoan, Luna, and San Gabriel, along with 90 percent of San Fernando City and San Juan in La Union were still without power and their communication facilities crippled.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported that infrastructure damaged was pegged at P103 million, while agricultural losses reached P61 million, affecting 271 barangays with at least 25 houses destroyed.
Evacuation centers in San Fernando and San Juan continued to shelter hundreds of displaced residents.
Infra damage
In Zambales, slope protection structures meant to guard coastal areas from flooding were further battered by the combined effects of “Emong” and previous storms like “Crising” (Wipha) and “Dante” (Fernando).
According to provincial engineer Domingo Mariano, many of these infrastructures had already sustained damage since Supertyphoon “Carina” (Gaemi) last year.
But since these were not local projects, their repairs were beyond the province’s capacity and had to be undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways, which has earlier reported that the damage to 11 national government slope protection projects affected by the storms reached P1.695 billion.
In the northernmost province of Batanes, residents in the capital town of Basco experienced water shortages over the past days after a pipeline at the Mt. Iraya watershed was damaged by landslides.
According to the local government, the water supply from Racuaranum Spring was severely disrupted, forcing Water Works personnel to hike up Mt. Iraya to begin repairs.
Batanes saw earlier damage from Crising, which left many households in Basco without steady water supply.
Uprooted tree
In Legazpi City, a woman was killed and three others injured after a large tree fell onto a passenger van around 10 a.m. on Monday in Barangay Padang.
Police Executive Master Sergeant Carlos Paña said a Tabog tree, reportedly uprooted by strong winds and loosened soil from days of rain, crashed onto the van as it traveled from Bacacay town to the city.
Authorities said the saturated ground may have contributed to the tree’s collapse, as monsoon rains and Emong continued to destabilize areas across Luzon. —WITH REPORTS FROM JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT, VILLAMOR VISAYA JR. AND MA. APRIL MIER-MANJARES
