Typhoon Karen left six dead and a total of 69 households evacuated in the Cordillera Region with landslides and flood waters resulting from heavy down pour from early dawn Tuesday until Thursday morning.
BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat.com
Vol. VIII, No. 29, August 24-30, 2008
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (247 kms. North of Manila) – Typhoon Karen left six dead and a total of 69 households evacuated in the Cordillera Region with landslides and flood waters resulting from heavy down pour from early dawn Tuesday until Thursday morning.
At least four were reported dead and 23 families evacuated in Benguet, one in Abra and one in Baguio City.
Reports from the Benguet Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, which Gov. Nestor Fongwan leads, show that the death toll included three children of a mining couple from Barangay (village) Ucab in Itogon. The other casualty is a 33-year-old farmer from Natubleng, Buguias. All four were found dead in mudslides.
The victims from Sitio First Gate in Ucab, Itogon – Mark Anthony (1), Lester (8) and Alvin Somera (10), were brought to the Sacred Heart Hospital Wednesday but were reportedly pronounced dead-on-arrival. Their parents, Rogel and Lorenza, small-scale miners, were out of the house with two more of their children, when their house collapsed with the loosened ground.
Twenty-three more households had to be evacuated to the Evangelical Church in Ucab. Ten of the evacuated families are living in temporary dwellings below the Itogon road while the rest are in First Gate, according to Brgy. Capt. Eduardo Daniel in an interview.
Daniel said the provincial government sent a relief team in time for the evacuation. It distributed blankets, canned goods, rice and other food supplies.
“Evacuees started fixing their houses as soon as the rains stopped Thursday,” Daniel told Nordis.
Fongwan identified the lone Buguias casualty as Arnold Attiw, who was also covered with mudslides Wednesday.
Two male residents of Sitio Supang in Poblacion, Itogon were injured. Gerry Fabilaran, 33, was hit by a GI sheet while Benguet Electric Cooperative lineman Milton Sotero, 30, fell from an electric post.
Several road networks earlier reported closed due to slides have been opened with concerned local government units initiating clearing operations. Tuba’s Kennon road, Kapangan road and the Itogon road were reportedly closed Wednesday but have been cleared in due time, according to Fongwan.
The extent of farm and crop damage is still being evaluated at the time of the interview with Fongwan. He said the strawberry fields here were so flooded that farmers need new planting materials to replace the damaged crops.
Meanwhile, in Baguio City, the typhoon claimed the life 72-year-old Petra Kadatar of Brgy. Pinsao, who was buried in a landslide, while 21-year-old Hesterlee Anne Carpiso of Brgy. Sta. Scholastica was injured.
In Abra, 12-year-old Camille Rasalan also died when she was hit by a fallen tree at the height of the typhoon, while in La Union, 77-year-old Hilario Badungan also died after being buried in a landslide.
On August 21, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD)-Cordillera reported that 14 families in Itogon remained threatened with landslides, while 46 families earlier evacuated in Abra have started returning home. It also said floodwaters in Bangued and La Paz towns in Abra and in Rizal, Kalinga have subsided. Northern Dispatch / Posted by(Bulatlat.com)
