Ormoc City LGU gives 200 sacks of rice for Biliran

ORMOC CITY, Philippines — Mayor Richard Gomez announced Thursday afternoon that the Ormoc City government, during his meeting with the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC), will be giving 200 sacks of rice to Urduja-devastated Biliran province.

"Let's help our neighbors like they have helped us," Gomez said, citing Biliranons were among those who helped Ormoc when a destructive earthquake hit the city on July 6.

Ormoc was also the recipient of the generosity of other LGUs who readily responded to the crisis. The mayor called for the meeting to strategize how to deal with Vinta, in case it affects the city.

As the meeting went on, it was already starting to rain and CDRRM officer Ciriaco Tolibao warned that Ormoc's rivers and waterways were already heavily silted from Urduja last week, and it will take only a lesser amount of rain to cause flooding again. "Grabe ang siltation sa atong mga sapa nga gamay’ng uwan lang, musaka dayon ang tubig," he told the council.

It was later recommended that barangay chairpersons should be activated to know how to conduct pre-emptive measures in their own turfs. All government vehicles are also on alert, ready to do pre-emptive evacuations, if necessary, and respond to emergencies.

In a recap of Urduja's flooding of Ormoc, it was also reported that the final death toll was three and that all "missing" persons were found, one of them in an evacuation center and the rest at their workplaces.

The heaviest damage of Urduja in Ormoc was on agriculture. City Agriculturist Elena Mendoza reported a loss of P147-million in 'direct cost,' which could run to P1.5-billion to include loss of opportunity. The biggest losers were the rice farmers who have just planted their fields only to lose their seedlings to the flood. Some 6,000 hectares of rice lands in the city were waterlogged due to the 5-day continuous downpour.

Dante Albarico, weatherman of Ormoc's agriculture weather monitoring, said that Urduja dumped as much as 100 mm of rain per hour in Ormoc. On the other hand, Tzu Chi Philippines which funded a relocation village that was severely flooded by Urduja, has enjoined their more than 1,500 beneficiaries to start cleaning their homes.

Councilor Vincent Rama, chairman of the committee on social welfare, said that Alfred Li of Tzu Chi said they will be employing the beneficiaries in a "cash-for-work" scheme to clean up their homes, so that they can return to their normal lives. (FREEMAN)