Property damage caused by Pablo hits P37B

The amount of property damaged by typhoon “Pablo” has risen to almost P37 billion, exceeding those of strong weather disturbances that ravaged the country recently.

Pablo has destroyed P36.95 billion worth of infrastructure, agricultural products and private properties as of Tuesday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.

The agriculture sector was the hardest hit with P26.53 billion worth of damage. The amount of damage in infrastructure and private properties totaled P7.57 billion and P2.86 billion, respectively.

The total cost of damage rose by P2 billion from last Monday after the NDRRMC had received updated reports from disaster management officers in Davao. These reports contained additional data about affected private properties and health facilities.

The amount of property damage caused by Pablo is way higher than that of tropical storm “Ondoy” (P11 billion) and typhoons “Pepeng” (P27.3 billion), “Pedring” (P15.55 billion) and “Sendong” (P2.07 billion).

Pablo also damaged a total of 216,817 houses in Ilocos, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao and SOCCSKSARGEN regions.

The death toll from the typhoon stayed at 1,067 while 834 persons are still missing. The typhoon has also left 2,666 persons injured and has affected 6.24 million persons or 711,682 families.

NDRRMC said 3,011 families or 13,940 persons are still inside 87 evacuation centers nationwide.

The government’s search teams composed of personnel from Coast Guard, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Bureau of Fire Protection, and Philippine National Police are still in Davao to look for survivors.

A total of 1,475 personnel and 1,536 air, land, and sea assets were involved in the operations, which started as early as first week of December.

The amount of assistance provided by state agencies, local governments and humanitarian groups have reached P258.83 million.

A total of 121 medical teams composed of 1,166 personnel and 107 technical teams have been mobilized to attend to the needs of the victims.

Meanwhile, international humanitarian groups are scheduled to conduct relief operations in parts of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental this week.

The Humanitarian Response Consortium and Oxfam will visit New Bataan in Compostela Valley and Boston and Cateel in Davao Oriental to provide emergency shelters and hygiene kits to affected residents.

The relief teams will provide tents, tarps, ropes and hygiene kits to 8,000 families in Davao del Norte. Water kits and portalets will also be given to about 3,000 households in Compostela Valley.