RUBY, the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year, had caused P1.04 billion in damage to the agricultural industry in the storm-prone eastern Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported on Tuesday morning.
What was now a tropical depression -- since it has weakened by the time it reached the central part of the Philippines on Monday -- first hit land in Eastern Visayas during the weekend and caused P691.3 million in damages.
This figure included P30 million worth of damages to local agricultural infrastructure, with the most of the damage affecting rice and corn crops, and fisheries -- mainstays of local livelihood in an area devastated by the deadly 2013 super-typhoon Yolanda.
The province of Leyte alone incurred P365 million in damage.
Another P341.5 million worth of damage were caused in the Bicol Region, where the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes have each declared themselves under the “state of calamity.”
NDRRMC’s figures were not far off from the Department of Agriculture’s data, whose latest update on Tuesday afternoon pegged the reported agricultural damage at P1.27 billion, up from the P1.02-billion initial estimate the previous day.
Of the total, rice accounted for the largest production loss amounting to P890.92 million equivalent to 52,034 metric tons (MT). Corn had P101.72 million worth of losses, while high-value crops registered P199.23 million.
“These are minimal and losses in these areas will have no critical impact on the national palay and corn production target,” the Agriculture department said.
As of Tuesday morning, the typhoon was said to have affected 2.1 million people (2% of the population) living in 3,419 barangays in eight regions. Almost a million of this were from Eastern Visayas.
Some 10,743 residents in Metro Manila, mostly the city’s poorest residents who live in shanty homes along the coast and riverbanks, spent Monday night in evacuation centers to wait out the storm.
With bad weather finally giving way to travel-friendly skies, the military flew emergency flights with food, water and other essentials from Cebu to the worst-affected areas on Samar on Tuesday.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel “Mar” A. Roxas II said 200,000 people were believed to be in need of help in Eastern Samar, but this could rise as more comprehensive assessments were carried out in isolated communities.
“The emergency phase is over and the patient has started to stabilize,” Mr. Roxas, who has been stationed in Samar since before the storm struck, said in a nationally televised briefing. “What is most important is we feed the patient and gather accurate data so that we know how many food packs need to be distributed.”
In a separate briefing, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail F. Valte reacted to reports of destroyed bunkhouses, which still served as housing for the residents displaced by Yolanda a year after the disaster.
“[T]he bunkhouses are not meant to be permanent shelters...Again, by the very nature... of it, that’s temporary and some of them are no longer in use because [the residents] have been transferred to new homes,” Ms. Valte told reporters.
Meanwhile, the NDRRMC had adjusted its official death toll to three, but this figure no longer included the two initially reported casualties in Iloilo that were determined not to be directly related to the storm.
However, the Philippine Red Cross counted 27 casualties, most of which were in Eastern Samar. NDRRMC Administrator Undersecretary Alexander P. Pama said that the interagency body was careful in validating that the deaths were caused by the storm.
Having downgraded Ruby further into a tropical depression, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) lifted all storm warning signals in the country.
Located at sea 215 kilometers west of Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro as of 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Ruby packed winds of 45 kilometers per hour (kph) while moving in a southwest direction at a speed of 13 kph. It was now expected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on Thursday morning.
However, the northeast monsoon would still bring light to moderate rain over Metro Manila and much of Northern Luzon.
Meanwhile, residents who have been experiencing power outages owing to Ruby will not celebrate Christmas Day in the dark.
The Department of Energy (DoE), which overlooks electricity restoration activities in areas affected by the weather disturbance, said energy agencies are exerting all efforts to bring back power as soon as possible.
Patrick T. Aquino, DoE director, said parts of Leyte, Samar and Batangas are still without power as of press time yesterday.
“Restoration activities are expected to be completed before Christmas,” Mr. Aquino said in a text message.
Latest data from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines showed that at least 16 transmission lines have yet to be restored.
Source - http://www.bworldonline.com/
