BAGUIO CITY – Three heavily devastated provinces in the Cordillera were placed under state of calamity by their respective provincial boards after suffering from heavy damages on agriculture, infrastructure and livelihood of their constituents following the recent wrath of Super typhoon Lawin last week.
Apayao and Kalinga, where Tropical Cyclone Signal No. 5 was hoisted by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) at the height of the strongest weather disturbance that struck the Luzon area, were placed by their respective provincial boards under state of calamity Friday, while Mountain Province was also placed under the state of calamity Saturday.
The Ifugao Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) recommended the province to be placed under a state of calamity but the resolution has yet to be acted upon by the provincial board while the Abra provincial government has yet to act on whether or not the province, where Signal No. 5 was also hoisted will be placed under state of calamity.
Based on the latest consolidated report from the Office of Civil Defence (OCD) in the Cordillera, the region was able to record 14 deaths, 4 injured and 1 missing due to the occurrence of landslides and strong water current in the various river systems. Benguet and Kalinga accounted for 6 deaths each while Ifugao reported 2 deaths all because of landslides that buried the houses of the victims at the height of the weather disturbance.
Of the total P390.7 million worth of initial damages inflicted by Lawin to the region’s agriculture, Kalinga sustained the biggest damage to agriculture with a total of P134 million damaged to rice, corn and high value crops followed by Apayao that initially reported some P91 million worth of crop damages, Abra was able to suffer more than P64 million worth of crop damages with Ifugao recording some P46 million damages to mostly palay and high value crops followed by Mountain Province with P25 million and Benguet with P12.4 million damages mostly to the province’s vegetable industry.
There are still 36 national, provincial, city and municipal roads that remain closed to vehicular traffic due to series of landslides and road cuts as a result of the wrath of the typhoon while 22 national and local roads were able to be opened to traffic through the efforts of the public works department and the concerned local governments.
Lawin left a total of 6,07 damaged houses regionwide with 5,294 partially damaged and 803 houses totally damaged. Kalinga reported the biggest number of partially and totally damaged houses with 2,145 and 569, respectively followed by Apayao with 1,902 partially damaged houses and 116 totally damaged structures. Benguet accounted for 362 partially damaged houses and 62 totally damaged houses while Abra had 360 partially damaged houses and 39 totally damaged houses. Ifugao recorded 392 partially damaged houses and 13 totally damaged ones while Mountain Province had 133 partially damaged houses and 4 totally damaged structures during the onslaught of the super typhoon.
Further, there were some 17,843 families composed of 75,634 individuals were affected by the onslaught of the typhoon regionwide but 976 families composed of 3,878 individuals still remain in evacuation centers or with their relatives.
Moreover, there are 490 families composed of 1,835 individuals who are still in 24 evacuation centers while the remaining 486 families composed of 2,043 individuals are living with their relatives or neighbors while awaiting the weather to improve to go back to their own houses or repair their damaged homes.
The OCD-CAR reported the government was able to distribute over P4.8 million worth of assistance to the calamity victims in the different parts of the region over the past several days and such assistance was in the form of food packs for those who were evacuated from their homes and stayed in evacuation centers.
Baguio City has yet to submit its detailed report to the disaster operation center that might result to the significant increase in the damages and families affected by the typhoon considering that what was released was the initial assessment of the team dispatched by concerned government agencies to conduct the rapid assessment on the damages infected by the typhoon regionwide
