Search, rescue and retrieval (SRR) operations were officially concluded in at least three landslide-hit areas in Leyte province despite the fact that majority of the 110 missing persons due to Typhoon “Agaton” were recorded in Eastern Visayas (Region 8), the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Tuesday, April 19.
Latest data from the NDRRMC showed that the death toll has already reached 175 after three more people were found dead by the rescue teams.
In Abuyog, Leyte, the NDRRMC announced that the incident management team (IMT) would be holding its final day of SRR ops on April 19.
“The Abuyog IMT continues the operations today , but this will be the final day of the operations,” said NDRRMC communications officer Easha Mariano.
“In Baybay City, the SRR operations in Mailhi and Bunga were already terminated while the SRR operations in Kantagnos remain ongoing,” Mariano added.
The stoppage of the SRR operations proved to be a heartbreaker for some of the typhoon survivors since 104 out of the total 110 missing persons were reported in Eastern Visayas.
NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal previously said IMTs had to consider the relatively unsafe situation in the landslide areas which was the basis for the stoppage of the SRR operations.
He explained that they had to consider the safety of the rescue teams who had to dig up and find survivors or fatalities underneath the soft soil which were easily being filled up by rushing water from a higher location.
Since the SRR operations were now finalized in some areas, Timbal shared that they have started working on revising the hazard mapping in some hazard-prone areas to craft new possible worst case scenarios in preparation for future calamities.
“Isa po sa mga ginagawa ng NDRRMC ay ang pagrerepaso sa mga hazard locations para makita natin muli itong mga hazard areas at kung ano ang potential worst case scenario po sa hazard areas na ‘yan (One thing that we are doing in the NDRRMC is the revision of the hazard locations for us to see where the hazard areas are and determine the potential worst case scenario in these hazard areas),” he said