A day after typhoon “Odette” pummeled Visayas and Mindanao, Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, Executive Director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), went to the ground on Saturday, Dec. 18, and visited several areas that were badly hit by the most powerful storm to hit the country this year.

Jalad went to Leyte in Eastern Visayas (Region 8) early Saturday morning onboard a Philippine Air Force (PAF) aircraft where he personally assessed the damages in Ormoc and delivered needed relief items to affected residents.

He then proceeded to Surigao Island in Caraga (Region 13) to help establish communication lines with the local government unit (LGU) as power and signal interruption hit the island.

So far, the NDRRMC has yet to receive the results of damage assessment that were conducted by their counterpart agencies in the affected areas.

“To be honest, anecdotal pa lang ang nareceive namin dito from our observers on the ground that there have been severe damages. Ayaw ko naman sabihing ‘totally devastated’ but some of our... ‘yong description na ibinibigay nila eh parang akala mo dinurog ng bagyo ‘yong communities (To be honest, what we have right now are just anecdotal from our observers on the ground that there have been severe damages. I don’t want to say these are ‘totally devastated’ areas but some of our described the communities as if they were pounded by the typhoon),” said NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal.

“What we advise them is to focus on relief and search and rescue (SAR) operations before we go to data crunching. Our priority is to help our kababayans so what we are doing now is we are simultaneously fixing the power lines, cell towers, seaports and airports, and we are also distributing relief assistance to those who are in evacuation centers,” he continued.

“We are also looking to provide assistance to local government units since some of them are asking for additional family food packs. It appears that the supplies they prepared will not last if the evacuees stay for a week or so in the evacuation centers,” he said.

Power, signal disruption

In Eastern Visayas, Timbal said that the weather has already been “fine” and they were checking if some residents have already returned to their communities.

But a major problem is power and signal restoration particularly in Bohol.

“Ang tindi daw ng impact sa kanila dahil walang power ang buong isla ng Bohol. Wala ring signal sa buong isla so we’re working on that (The impact is tremendous because the entire Bohol Island lost its power. The entire island also has no signal so we’re working on that),” Timbal said.

In Caraga, the Office of Civil Defense’s (OCD) emergency telecommunications team re-established communication link between the NDRRM Operations Center and Siargao province after signal was disrupted by the storm.

The team, composed of Archival Abejo and Rustom Avila, setup the equipment at Siargao Domestic Airport by equipping very small aperture terminal (VSAT) for data connectivity, satellite phone for voice connectivity, and drone for video surveillance.

In Dinagat Islands also in Region 13, the NDRRMC received reports that around 95 percent of the households were unroofed. The area also experienced power and signal interruption.

“If that’s the case, what we’re going to do is to just repair the houses. But what we’re saying here is that the impact is mostly on the power utilities as well as in the communication lines,” Timbal said.

Casualty

So far, Jalad said there were at least 14 people who died, seven were missing, and two were injured reportedly due to typhoon Odette.

The fatalities include six in Western Visayas (Region 6) namely in Negros Occidental (3), Guimaras (2), and Iloilo City (1); four in Central Visayas (Region 7) namely in Cebu City (2) and Lapu-Lapu City (2); one in Eastern Visayas (Region 8) which was recorded in Southern Leyte; and one in Northern Mindanao which was logged in Bukidnon.

Jalad added that two fatalities were being validated in Caraga (Region 13).

But in the NDRRMC Operations Center, Timbal said only five deaths were validated to be related to typhoon Odette. Others, he noted, were still being validated.

He identified the five victims as Rosalyn Caberte, 53, of Sambag, Iloilo City; Rudulfo Castro, 76, and Virginia Palencio, 62, both residents of Sibunag, Guimaras; Joemar Sumiling, 32, of La Cariota, Negros Occidental; and a 14-year-old boy in San Fernando, Bukidnon.

All of them except the teenage boy were either hit or pinned to death by uprooted trees at the height of the storm. The cause of death of the fifth victim is yet to be determined.