The search and rescue operations for victims of Typhoon “Agaton” in Eastern Visayas (Region 8) continued on Easter Sunday, April 17, as rescuers refused to give up and expressed hope that they will find more survivors in the aftermath of the devastation.
Based on the latest tally of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) as of 12 noon Sunday, five more people were killed by Agaton in Region 8 which brought the total tally to 172.
All the new fatalities were either victims of landslides or drowning in Baybay City and Abuyog town in Leyte province, said NDRRMC Executive Director Ricardo Jalad in a situational report.
Overall, there were 156 deaths recorded in Region 8; 11 in Western Visayas (Region 6); three in Davao (Region 11); and two in Central Visayas (Region 7).
There were also 110 missing persons in at least three regions that were affected by the typhoon: 104 were in Region 8; five in Region 6; and one in Region 11.
Meanwhile, the number of Filipinos affected by the first tropical cyclone to hit the country this year has also ballooned to 2,015,643 individuals or 583,994 families.
“We’re hoping that even at this point, the search and rescue teams will be able to extricate more survivors in these areas. We are receiving reports from the ground that they are still hearing voices underneath the landslide areas so we’re still continuing with the rescue operations,” said NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal.
But the biggest challenge for the SRR teams was the frail condition of the soil in the landslide areas which trigger new and smaller landslides every time rescuers dig the ground.
“Our priority is to ensure that our search and rescue personnel will be safe since there are more than 300 of them deployed in Eastern Visayas alone. The challenge is the continuing rains in some areas. There was one instance when our rescue personnel nearly got swept by a landslide after digging into a soft soil which immediately got filled with water,” Timbal shared.
Despite this, the NDRRMC assured that rescue operations will continue in the landslide-hit areas until such time that local chief executives announce that the priority will be shifted to search and retrieval operations.
“We leave it to the local government leaders on the ground to determine whether we need to start focusing our operations to search and retrieval. They are the ones who really know the area and have a feel of the situation,” Timbal stated.