‘Lando’ death toll rises

Water flowing downstream swamps 2 Bulacan towns

The death toll from typhoon “Lando,” which affected close to one million people in Central and Northern Luzon, climbed to 58 yesterday as widespread flooding in Central and Northern Luzon began to ease yesterday.

However, while floods started to subside in most areas affected by “Lando,” low-lying areas started to feel the impact of water flowing downstream yesterday, with Calumpit and Hagonoy now submerged despite a sunny day. The two low-lying Bulacan towns are catch basins for flood waters from Nueva Ecija and other mountainous areas in Luzon.

Still flooded are 81 low-lying

barangays in Pampanga, particularly in Candaba, San Luis, Arayat, and San Simon.

In Candaba, 16 barangays remain submerged in floodwaters as high as 10 feet, while 13 barangays in San Luis are still under seven-foot flood. Fifteen villages in Arayat are also under water of up to eight feet high.

Data gathered from the local Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the police show that of the 58 fatalities, 20 were reported in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), 13 in Central Luzon (Region 3), eight in Region 1, five in Region 2, nine in Iloilo, two in Quezon City, and one in Laguna.

While the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) do not consider the Iloilo fatalities in the death toll, Office of Civil Defense Western Visayas Director Rosario Cabrea had earlier said that the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) considered the capsizing of boat that killed nine victims as part of the effects of Lando.

Official toll Latest data released by the NDRRMC placed the official death toll at 35 and 24 injured as it has yet to validate the other fatalities.

As the weather improved three days after the onslaught of “Lando,” now downgraded to tropical depression, officials were also counting the cost of ruined crops and drowned livestock from heavy rain that flowed into the vast farming regions in Central and Northern Luzon. Damage to agriculture and infrastructure has been placed at 6.5 billion as of yesterday.

“Although the water is still flowing downstream, it has started to subside in some areas,” Mahar Lagmay, director of Project NOAH, a government project to mitigate the impact of natural disasters in the Philippines, told AFP.

Heavy rains across the mountainous Northern Luzon, the cause of most of the flooding in the farming plains, had also eased, according to Lagmay and a local civil defense official.

Last Monday, President Aquino warned that a lot of this rainfall that fell on the northern portion of Luzon will be coming downstream and will be affecting barangays near the major river systems.

Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (PDRRM) officer Liz Mungcal said flood waters flowing downstream from Nueva Ecija began submerging villages in the two Bulacan towns as early 2 a.m. yesterday.

“The first report was that the floods were up to leg high but after two hours, it went up to knee-deep, then up to waist now in Barangay Sto. Niño,” Mungcal said.

She said Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado has already ordered the deployment of rescue teams to help stranded residents and move them to safer grounds.

As of 9 a.m., at least 27 villages were already submerged under 2 to 4 feet of rising flood waters, Mungcal said.

Two villages in Hagonoy – Barangays Sto. Niño and San Juan – were also submerged under two feet of rising floods.

Portions of Macarthur Highway, particularly from Barangay Iba-o-Este, were closed to vehicular traffic due to rising floods.

She also said that Calumpit Mayor Jesse de Jesus has already requested the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to cut off power in the flood stricken villages.

Still in evacuation centers

More than 300 villages had been submerged in Central and Northern Luzon on Monday and Tuesday, with the flooding consuming entire homes in some areas.

But the flooding had not subsided completely yet, forcing more than 107,000 people to remain in evacuation centers, according to the NDRRMC.

The deaths in the flooded areas were caused mostly by drowning, but also electrocution and crumbling walls, while one person died due to a snake bite.

The PAGASA said Lando melted into a tropical depression off Luzon’s north coast early yesterday with winds of 55 kilometers (34 miles) an hour.

When it first struck the east coast of Luzon on Sunday morning, its gusts were 210 kilometers an hour, making it the second strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year.

The Philippine islands are often the first major landmass to be hit by storms that emerge over the Pacific Ocean.

The most powerful storm ever recorded on land, super-typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan), hit the Visayas in 2013, leaving at least 7,350 people dead or missing.

Yesterday, Nueva Vizcaya and Cagayan were placed under the state of calamity. Also under the state of calamity are the towns Candaba, San Luis, and Arayat. Earlier on Tuesday, Pangasinan was also placed under the state of calamity.

Relief assistance

With extent of damage, officials vowed assistance to typhoon-affected residents.

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay visited yesterday flooded towns in Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, and Bulacan as his office continued to provide relief and other assistance to families displaced by Lando.

Binay visited San Simon, Candaba, and Arayat in Pampanga; Cabiao, San Isidro, and Gapan in Nueva Ecija; San Miguel, and San Ildefonso in Bulacan, leading his office in the distribution of relief goods.

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to use its 500million Quick Response Fund (QRF) to give immediate assistance to farmers and fishermen in areas devastated by “Lando.”

Sen. Franciz “Chiz” Escudero likewise urged the Aquino government to assist farmers hit by Lando, saying about 9.6 billion in Calamity Fund (CF) and Quick Response Fund (QRF) are immediately available to help those affected by Lando, as well as 1 billion from the Peoples’ Survival Fund (PSF). (With reports from AFP, Ellalyn de Vera, Ellson A. Quismorio, Mario B. Casayuran, Hannah L. Torregoza, PNA)