‘Egay’ death toll hits 9

A tropical storm that unleashed floods and landslides, killing at least nine people in the eastern Philippines, intensified yesterday into a typhoon, officials said.

Typhoon "Egay" has affected a total of 18,832 families, most of whom were displaced, according to data gathered by the national operations office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

President Arroyo, hearing the news from Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, who is also National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) head, flew yesterday to Calbayog City in Samar, one of the areas hardest hit by the typhoon.

She diverted from her original plan, which was to fly from Agusan del Sur to Manila, to meet with local disaster coordinating councils in Calbayog.

Reyes informed the President that the NDCC gave out P10,000 each for burial assistance to victims’ families and released 300 sacks of rice to 50 evacuation centers in Biliran, Leyte and Northern Samar.

While typhoon Egay wrought havoc in the provinces, Metro Manila was not spared from the heavy rains, which caused residents of low-lying areas in the metropolis to wade in murky floodwaters.

While classes remained suspended in many schools in Malabon and Navotas, other cities did not suspend classes, which led to traffic jams on main thoroughfares and roads leading to schools.

Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus said yesterday that students and their parents should be guided by an "automatic default system" applied by the Department of Education in the suspension of classes due to inclement weather. The system is based on advisories from the weather bureau.

Storm Signal No. 1 means classes are automatically suspended for elementary school students; Signal No. 2, classes suspended for elementary and high school students; and Signal No. 3, classes suspended for elementary, high school and college students.

Three other people have been injured while another three were reported missing since Egay struck the Philippines in recent days, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) at Camp Aguinaldo said.

Egay was expected to pass close to Taiwan today. It is expected to be 170 kilometers north-northwest of Okinawa, Japan by Thursday afternoon.

At least four of the dead were children, including two 3-year-old boys, one of whom drowned in Catbalogan City while the other was buried in a landslide in Leyte. They were among eight people who died on Sunday, while another person drowned Monday.

The fatalities from Catbalogan, Samar were identified as Lorna Dacoma, 27; her children Arvin, 10, and Mark, 3; and cousin Leo Tapalla, 30. Another Dacoma sibling, Frankie, 5, was reported as missing by the Regional Disaster and Coordinating Council in Tacloban City.

The President handed over a P50,000 check as financial assistance to Lorna’s widower, Renato Dacoma and their nine-year-old son Marvin. The financial assistance is over and above the NDCC’s P10,000 burial assistance for each of the three Dacoma family members who drowned.

Mrs. Arroyo said she was particularly saddened by the deaths in the Dacoma family.

"It was so sad that lives were lost. The saddest thing is that typhoon ‘Egay’ was not that strong. The loss of life could have been avoided," she said.

The President instructed Reyes to pursue "more vigorously" the government’s goal to achieve "zero casualty" in times of calamity.

Jaime Rubisi, 29, drowned last Sunday in Virac, Catanduanes while Demetrio Cabse, 52, of Milaor, Camarines Sur suffered the same fate the following day.

A landslide in Barangay Libas, Leyte, claimed the lives of Jocelyn Navelgas, 10; Evelyn Navelgas, 50; and her grandson Dionisio Gonzaga, 3.

Evelyn’s husband, Dominador, and another grandson, Ociber, were seriously injured.

Five-year-old Nadine Pacheco was also injured when the boat she was riding in Mandaluyong City capsized last Monday.

NDCC also reported two more people as missing: Gerbie Amorante, 10, who fell from a foot bridge last Sunday in Concepcion Pequeña, Camarines Sur; and Tirso Tubici, who reportedly drowned in Virac, Catanduanes on Sunday.

The typhoon has displaced 20 families in Catbalogan, Samar; 25 families in Naval, Biliran; and five families in Biliran, Biliran, according to the NDCC.

The DSWD’s National Operations Office reported that the typhoon damaged a total of 176 houses in eight provinces in Bicol and Eastern Visayas.

Some 720 families in La Union were affected by floods, the NDCC added.

Northern road blocks

Kennon Road, a major artery leading to the northern mountain resort of Baguio was cut off by rocks dislodged by landslides, and three sections of the north-south highway near the city of Urdaneta, Pangasinan were under water, the OCD said.

Some portions of the Halsema Highway, the main artery to the vegetable belt in northern Benguet, were closed due to landslides.

Motorists passing Marcos Highway risk being smashed by falling boulders, particularly near the Tuba-Baguio boundary.

Workers are clearing landslides along Naguillan Road and Nueva Vizcaya-Benguet Road, the latter being temporarily closed due to the swelling of the Santa Cruz River.

Public works officials have dispatched heavy equipment to the mountainous Dalton Pass area near the Nueva Vizcaya-Nueva Ecija boundary in anticipation of possible landslides.

Classes in elementary and high schools in Nueva Vizcaya have been suspended since June 16, while classes in Cagayan Valley were suspended yesterday due to heavy rains brought by storm Signal No. 3.

OCD director for Cordillera Vicente Tomazar voiced fears that heavily silted Abra River, one of the country’s largest rivers, might overflow due to the heavy rains and cause loss of lives and damage to property.

Electricity was knocked out in Samar and the adjacent island of Biliran, while some parts of the northern province of Cagayan were also without power.

Flood alerts were raised in the Bicol river as well as the Agno River, threatening low-lying areas including the cities of Iriga, Naga, Dagupan, Urdaneta and San Carlos.

A landslide triggered by the typhoon has rendered the national highway from Biliran island to other parts of Leyte impassable.

In Allen, Northern Samar, a total of 60 buses, 17 trucks, 42 light vehicles and 2,514 passengers bound for Luzon were also stranded in the town’s ferry terminal due to the typhoon.

Authorities issued a storm alert No. 3, out of a maximum four, in the northernmost Batanes group of islands, the Babuyan islands and the northern portion of Cagayan province.

The typhoon, packing winds of 120 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph, was moving northwest of the country at 19 kph, but was forecast to turn northeast close to Taiwan today and head toward southern Japan on Thursday.

At noon yesterday, the typhoon was 360 kilometers northeast of Batanes and 190 kilometers southeast of Taipei, the weather bureau reported.

Reyes, for his part, said regional and provincial disaster councils, as well as officials from the DSWD and the Department of Health, are in charge of the relief and rehabilitation of families affected by the typhoon.

Newly promoted Press Secretary Milton Alingod, who was part of Mrs. Arroyo’s official delegation during her Mindanao sortie, said the President decided to make a side trip to Calbayog on the eve of their return to Manila after she was apprised by the NDCC of the situation in Samar and Leyte

"We were meeting last night and the President decided to change her itinerary to visit the affected areas. She has been updated (on) situation reports from the areas affected by typhoon ‘Egay,’ even while she was busy here in Mindanao," he said.

Alingod said the President called a hastily organized meeting with local disaster councils headed by local government officials in typhoon-affected areas in Calbayog. — AFP, Marichu Villanueva, Miriam Garcia Desacada, Mike Frialde, Artemio Dumlao, Sheila Crisostomo, Charlie Lagasca, Rainier Allan Ronda