MANILA – The provinces of Albay and Catanduanes were the country’s hardest hit areas during the onslaught of Super Typhoon “Rolly” on Sunday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.
In a situational briefing on Monday, NDRRMC executive director Ricardo Jalad said there was a widespread damage in agriculture, roads, bridges, and houses in the said provinces.
“The Bicol area, or at least two provinces of the Bicol area are probably the hardest hit, Catanduanes and Albay based on our unofficial information,” Jalad said. “The damage assessment is still ongoing and our focus is on responding and helping the victims.”
Jalad furthered that an Office of Civil Defense emergency telecommunications team will be deployed along with their small aperture terminal equipment to Catanduanes to establish a satellite and data communications network to address communication problems in the province.
Jalad also said the typhoon has “exposed” a total of 12 regions and “affected” 372,653 families or 2,068,085 individuals. A total of 108,555 families, or equivalent to 389,867 persons were preemptively evacuated due to the typhoon.
Meanwhile, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque expressed his thanks that the damage brought by typhoon “Rolly” was “not as huge as typhoon ‘Yolanda,’” which struck Eastern Visayas in 2013.
Roque said during the same situational briefing that “Rolly”’s damage and casualties are “incomparable to ‘Yolanda.’” A total of 6,340 lives were claimed after “Yolanda” devastated the Visayas region. “Rolly,” on one hand, killed at least 10 people in Bicol region.
“Nagpapasalamat tayo sa Panginoon at hindi kasing lala ang danyos na ginawa ni Rolly doon sa danyos na ginawa ni ‘Yolanda,’” Roque said. “Sa casualty po incomparable. So far, sampu pa lang po ang nakukumpirmang namatay at no comparison po to ‘Yolanda.’”
Roque also said President Rodrigo Duterte also wanted to commend local governments and agencies as the low number of fatalities can be attributed to the timely evacuation of people.
“Tingin ko po ang paningin ng Presidente, he would like to commend all local government units, all departments and agencies of government dahil napakita naman natin na dahil sa ating kahandaan, nabawasan natin ‘yung aberya,” Roque said.
“The goal should be zero casualty. Pero dahil tingin ko naman po, nag-evacuate ang mga tao. Nagkaroon ng forced evacuation, nabasawan talaga ang ating casualty sa bagyong ito,” he added./PN
