First posted 02:43:13 (Mla time) November 30, 2006 Norman Bordadora Inquirer Southern Luzon Inquirer TROPICAL STORM “REMING” (international code name: Durian) yesterday became a “supertyphoon” as it approached the eastern part of Luzon with winds stronger than those of Typhoon “Milenyo,” which slammed into Metro Manila and Luzon in late September. Milenyo (international codename: Xangsane) left 230 people dead or missing and cut off power to several provinces for weeks. Weather officials said Reming was capable of uprooting trees and blowing away houses made of light materials. As of 11 p.m. yesterday, the supertyphoon was spotted 190 kilometers east of Virac, Catanduanes, packing maximum sustained winds of 195 km per hour and gusts of up to 230 kph. It is expected to make landfall in Catanduanes this morning and unleash “strong rain and winds and possible storm surges,” the weather bureau said. This afternoon, Reming is expected to be over Sipocot in Camarines Sur. |
First posted 21:44:32 (Mla time) December 02, 2006 Tony Bergonia TJ Burgonio Inquirer PADANG, Legazpi City -- No one will probably know for sure how many lives were swallowed up in the torrents of volcanic mud and rocks unleashed by super-typhoon Reming but the man who should know, Philippine National Red Cross chief Senator Richard Gordon, said the figure could reach 700. Survivors of the disaster that struck this village of 1,400 people in Albay say they are certain many of their men, women, and children still lie underneath the pile of boulders and volcanic sand that wiped out entire neighborhoods here. “They’re still under there,” said a man, pointing with his lips at what used to be a two-kilometer stretch of road that debris from Mayon Volcano had obliterated. “There are houses under these.” Gordon on Saturday visited some of the areas ravaged by Reming in its powerful strike at Albay and other provinces in the Bicol region on Thursday. “Six hundred to 700 people are feared dead,” Gordon told reporters on the plane flying him back to Manila. The official casualty toll released by the National Disaster Coordinating Center in its 7 p.m. update put the number of dead at 303, including 285 dead in Albay, which bore the brunt of Reming’s gusts of 265 kilometers per hour. The NDCC said 10 people died in Camarines Sur, five in Catanduanes, two in Oriental Mindoro, and one in Quezon. The number of those on the official list of missing stood at 293. The NDCC said 195,153 families, or 799,056 people, in 12 provinces were affected. Of that number, 44,348 people were in evacuation centers. Reming also destroyed or damaged 118,324 houses. Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal was as puzzled as many of the villagers over what brought the destruction. “We weren’t expecting this,” he said. He said city officials anticipated flood and mudflows from Mayon to follow the course of the river, but they didn’t. “The mudflow descended on the village, not on the river. There must be something really wrong,” Rosal said. Villagers pointed to roofs jutting out of mud and boulders and said they were sure that there were people under them -- dying if not already dead. Joseph Manjares, an official of the PNRC chapter in Albay, said that based on projections, the number of missing might reach 769. All that some of the villagers could remember of that scary Thursday was the sound -- the terrifying braaam, braaam of boulders crashing down as floodwaters carried them from the slopes of the volcano, the woooosh of the winds, and human voices barely audible in the noise of nature’s wrath. “We can’t hear each other,” said Lordito Bautista, whose family was among about 10 who took shelter on the roof of a cement factory. “But I can hear women and children shouting. I can’t hear what they were shouting about but I’m sure they were crying for help. All I could hear was the sound of boulder hitting boulder.” “That was where we survived,” Bautista said, pointing to the roof that was all that could be seen of the cement factory. Some villagers recalled watching helplessly as people clinging to trees lost their grip and fell into floodwaters that they said reached the height of a two-story house. Jesus Almayda, a village official, said he was on the roof of his house and saw bodies being swept away in the waters like pieces of logs. People pointed to a roof that was all that stood out of a pile of mud, sand, and rocks at one end of the village. “Twenty people died there,” one man shouted at reporters and cameramen. The man said floods swept the villagers to the house where, seconds later, boulders and mud followed and buried them. Some villagers said they wanted to run away, but a wall of water rushing to them forced them to stay indoors. That was what the family of John Louie Belon tried to do. “We tried twice to just get out,” said his mother, who would not give her name. She said the family wanted to try a third time to leave the house, but the waters were coming fast. “So we just climbed our roof,” she said. When the water subsided and the mud dried, the family saw what was left of their belongings -- a pair of sofas, spoons and forks caked in mud, a set of dusty plates, and a pool of water in the middle of what used to be a living room. As officials and reporters wound their way into the village, the Belons were laying muddied clothes, kitchen ware, bed sheet,s and pillows out in the sun to dry. “We want to build a new house in another place,” said the mother. “We’re afraid of this place now.” There was no way of knowing for sure how many bodies the 20-foot-high pile of volcanic materials were holding. “We don’t have the equipment (to dig through the rubble),” said the mayor, “but we will surely retrieve their bodies.” “Our mission now is search and retrieve,” he said. The task of finding the dead was slow, and the stench of those that had been found started to fill the air. City officials said that in this village alone, at least 41 people were dead. At least 141 others were missing, believed to be underneath the pile of debris where there used to be roads and communities. At the lone funeral parlor here, a white board lists the names of 12 people who were confirmed dead. Inside a small room that served as a morgue, the bodies of four children, a woman, and a man were covered with pieces of cloth. Their names were not on the list yet. They had not been identified. A garage was emptied of vehicles to make way for white coffins. “These are reserved. These are still empty, but reserved (for the dead),” said one funeral parlor worker. At a larger funeral parlor outside the village, bodies were being sprayed with formalin, a commodity that Mayor Rosal said the city might run out of soon. One villager rushing to a crowd that gathered around the mayor yelled in Filipino—“Mayor, please help us.” |
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First posted 20:10:31 (Mla time) November 29, 2006 Ephraim Aguilar Inquirer LEGAZPI CITY -- Local disaster council and civil defense officials are preparing for typhoon Reming (international name Durian) and the possibility it may become a supertyphoon on Thursday when it hits the Bicol region. “We have already alerted around 130 civil defense deputized coordinators in all the cities, provinces and municipalities in the Bicol region,” said Cherry Abion, operations staff member of the Office of Civil Defense-Bicol. It is standard procedure that once public storm signal number one is raised, the Coast Guard will not allow sea vessels, especially motorized boats and fishing vessels, to sail, said Lucita Madarang, regional director of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina)-Bicol. Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Public Safety and Emeregency Management Office of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, said they were in the alert and preparedness status. Daep said that if public storm signal number 3 were raised, 150,000 individuals would be evacuated in Albay and 300,000 if signal number 4 were raised. He advised the public to wait for advisory to be issued Wednesday morning, depending on their monitoring of the typhoon's status. Susceptible areas have already been identified by the PDCC. Tropical Storm Reming, said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysicial and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), was detected 870 kilometers east of Samar as of 11 a.m. Tuesday with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 120 kilometers per hour. Reming was moving west-northwest at 26 kilometers per hour and was expected to be 350 kilometers east- northeast of Samar Wednesday morning. The weather bureau is monitoring the path of Reming as it may intensify into a super typhoon and travel a route similar to Milenyo (international name Xangsane) and may hit the Bicol region on Thursday or strike Northern Luzon or Central Luzon as what Paeng (Cimaron) and Queenie (Chebi) did. The PAGASA weather bulletin forecast said it would be 350 kilometers east northeast of Samar on Thursday morning in the vicinity of Catanduanes in the Bicol region, and on Friday morning, in the vicinity of Metro Manila. No public storm signals were raised by PAGASA as of 11 a.m. Tuesday with the next forecast to be announced at 11 p.m. The National Disaster Coordinating Council, however, warned the public and officials concerned to take actions in preparing for the hazards brought by the storm like landslides near mountainous areas, storm surge in coastal areas, and floods in lowlands. As of Tuesday, around eight percent of Albay still had no power, two months after Mileyno damaged electrical facilities up to around P50 million. Milenyo brought floods which displaced 60,821 persons in 62 villages and damaged 3,000 houses in affected areas in Metro Manila and Southern Luzon. |
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LIONS VILLAGE
LIONS VILLAGE
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