The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Saturday, Dec. 18, said that so far over 130,000 families or 400,000 individuals from Regions 4-B, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 13 have been affected by typhoon Odette (international name: Rai).
Over 77, 000 families or around 280,000 individuals are currently staying in evacuation centers in the affected regions," DSWD said in a statement on Saturday, Dec. 18.
In continuation of the disaster response operations for typhoon Odette, DSWD raised its response operations to red alert status to strengthen its monitoring and coordination with local government units (LGUs) affected by the tropical cyclone.
All concerned DSWD field offices in affected areas are also rendering 24/7 disaster response operations to immediately provide technical assistance and resource augmentation to LGUs.
In addition, DSWD continues its replenishment and repacking operations to ensure the availability of relief items that will be augmented to affected localities.
This is part of the Department’s mandate as the lead in the Food and Non-Food Items Cluster of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
Aside from repacking, the Department’s regional office in Region 4-B also sent 82 modular tents to nine municipalities in Romblon, namely, Alcantara, Calatrava, Ferrol, Looc, Odiongan, San Agustin, San Andres, Sta. Fe, and Sta. Maria.
As of Dec. 18, LGUs from Region 4-B and Caraga have already provided over P1.5 million worth of relief assistance to their affected constituents.
The DSWD assured the public that it has sufficient relief items for distribution to affected localities as it maintains stockpiles and standby funds amounting to about P900 million.
Of the P900 million, about P78 million are standby funds readily available at the DSWD Central Office and field offices
Over 400,000 family food packs have been also prepared in strategic locations around the country.
The DSWD said that it will continue to perform technical assistance and resource augmentation to ensure that the needs of affected families are efficiently addressed.