GIBO WADED THROUGH FLOODS IN STA. CRUZ, LAGUNA / 4 TYPHOONS UPDATE
[PHOTO
AT LEFT - This aerial photo taken by the Philippine Air Force shows a flooded
area in Sta. Cruz, Laguna in the aftermath of typhoon Santi.]
MANILA, NOVEMBER 1, 2009 (BULLETIN) The death toll from Typhoon “Santi” (international codename Mirinae) has reached 14, mostly old people and children, with four injured and four still missing, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said Sunday.
Half of the deaths were reported in Camarines Norte due to flashfloods and hypothermia, including a 93-year-old woman identified as Maria Ferrer.
The other fatalities in the province were Flora Estacion and Rodrigo Rodriguez, both 64 years old; Rasco Rogelio, 63; Jose Eboña, 62; Analiza dela Cruz, 35, and Sarah Mae Vargas, two years old.
A single fatality was recorded in Catanduanes, Louie Alano, 30, who died of hypothermia.
In Region IV-A, six deaths were reported, four of them from Laguna which suffered massive flooding. The victims were identified as Julieta Zaguire, 79; Roderico Cabardo, 51; Edsel Lovina, 12; and Margie Taiño, eight years old.
In Cavite, 59-year-old Tirso Ramos died when he fell off the roof while trying to repair his house while in Quezon province, Edwin Capayas, 42, died from drowning.
[PHOTO AT LEFT Defense Secretary Gilbert ‘Gibo’ Teodoro Jr. (left) wades through floodwaters to reach out to residents in Barangay Callos in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, which was hit hard by the lashing winds and rain of typhoon ‘Santi.’ Teodoro spent the entire day Saturday inspecting the province’s storm-battered lakeshore towns to speed up relief operations]
Those injured were Maricel dela Rosa, 24; John Mar Agaton, 16; Malou Soriano, 39; and Victor Macalalad, 4.
Reported missing were Anthony Espidido, Romulo Soriano, 40, and Nicolo Soriano, 3, all of Laguna; and Victoria Delmoro, 79, of Quezon province.
An NDCC report showed that total of 2,853 families or 13,456 persons were affected in 68 barangays in Regions III (Centra Luzon), IV-A (Calabarzon), IV-B (Mimaropa), V (Bicol) and the National Capital Region (NCR).
By evening of October 31, there were still 245 passengers, 19 vehicles and five vessels stranded in ports around Luzon.
A total of 23,103 families or 115,507 persons were also preemptively evacuated in regions IV-A, V, and the NCR.
The office of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) in Camarines Norte said around P15.6 million worth of properties and government infrastructures were damaged, including barangay halls, day care centers, health centers and a foot bridge in Labo town which collapsed at the first strike of the storm.
In Laguna, Governor Teresita Lazaro said around 85% percent of the capital town of Sta. Cruz was once again submerged in flood waters after the Sta. Cruz River overflowed. The town has yet to recover from the onslaught of Typhoon “Ondoy”.
NDCC spokesman Lt. Col Ernesto Torres said that despite smaller damage and fewer casualties compared to the three previous weather disturbances (Ondoy, Pepeng and Ramil), there is no reason to celebrate because a number of lives were still lost.
“Despite lesser figures, relevant pa rin ito kasi may mga buhay na nasayang pero buti na lang din hindi gaanong malaki ang pinsala unlike the previous three”, Torres said.
The Philippine Coast Guard has already lifted the ban on sea travel after the storm signals in the affected areas including Metro Manila were lifted.
Around 7,000 passengers, most of them going to the provinces for the All Saints Day observance, have been stranded in different seaports since Friday when the weather bureau raised public storm warnings.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said there is a need to look into the “abnormal behaviors” of the recent storms that hit the country in the last two previous months.
PAGASA deputy director Nathaniel Cruz said the state weather bureau has to conduct research to find out exactly what caused Tropical Storm Ondoy to dump “the highest amount of rainfall in history” last September 26.
Nilo said they would also focus on the curious case of Typhoon Pepeng whose threat lingered the longest for more than two weeks because of “the unusually erratic track” it followed in early October.
The top weather official noted that they will also look into the abnormal behavior of Typhoon Ramil which was “unexpectedly overpowered” by weaker weather systems, prompting its failure to make landfall in Cagayan thrice in its 12-day stay in the country in mid-October.
Cruz explained that PAGASA would find the results of the study useful, which could help minimize the guessing game with the coming of more “unusually strong and abnormally erratic” tropical cyclones produced by the adverse effects of climate change.
For his part, PAGASA Administrator Prisco Nilo noted that the researches would serve as a reference for future public consumption.
“It would be indicative of what is going to come, which will definitely be getting worse. And we need these studies for us to take better preparation,” he told the Manila Bulletin.
(UPDATE) 4th typhoon leaves 20 dead in RP (The Philippine Star) Updated November 02, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A tropical storm roared toward Vietnam today after battering the Philippine capital and surrounding provinces, leaving 20 people dead in a region still soggy from three recent storms.
Typhoon Santi (international name Mirinae) weakened Sunday as it headed over the South China Sea. It was expected to strike Vietnam's central coast around noon Monday.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered residents to begin evacuating high-risk areas of five coastal provinces and ordered Vietnamese fishermen in the South China Sea to seek shelter immediately.
The two countries are still recovering from Typhoon Ketsana, which brought the Philippine capital, Manila, its worst flooding in 40 years and went on to kill more than 160 people in Vietnam in late September.
Ketsana and two later storms killed more than 900 in the Philippines. Some 87,000 people who fled the storms were still living in temporary shelters when Mirinae struck.
The latest typhoon left 20 dead, mostly from drowning, in six provinces. Four people were missing, disaster response officials said.
The storm did not keep the largely Roman Catholic country from paying respects to the dead on All Saints Day on Sunday. Huge crowds jammed cemeteries, with some people visiting still-flooded ones by boat.
In Rizal province, just east of Manila, villagers carrying flowers and candles paddled canoes into a rural cemetery that resembled a lake.
Joel Librilla thrust his hands into the waist-high waters to feel the letters on submerged tombstones in a search for his mother's grave.
"We don't know where to light our candles," Librilla told the Associated Press Television News. "But my mother should know that this is for her."
Forecasters said they were watching a low pressure area 379 miles (610 kilometers) off the country's eastern coast over the Pacific, but it was too early to tell if it will develop into yet another storm.