THE floods from the heavy rains spawned by the just-exited Typhoon Ineng have left at least 700 families living in eight barangays in Ilocos Sur facing the prospects of dying from hunger, as the government is yet to airdrop them food packs or rescue them.
As of press time, military aircraft were unable to fly for the “mercy missions,” because of the prevailing bad weather condition.
The plight of the residents trapped inside their flooded homes in the towns of Caoayan and Santa lingers even as the death toll from the typhoon, which veered away from the country on Monday, has risen to 17 people with 17 more injured. Another 14 people are still missing.
The number of deaths climbed as search and rescue teams continue to sift through the debris of a landslide at Barangay Taneg in Mankayan, Benguet, searching for 14 miners, who were “listed” as missing following the landslide on Sunday. The bodies of their three dead colleagues were already pulled out.
Ineng, with its heavy rains and wind that hit Northern Luzon and the Cordillera Administrative Region for days, has spawned floods and landslides in several provinces in the country’s northern region, isolating several barangays, causing traffic jams and damaging bridges.
Most of the flooding were blamed on swelling rivers, storm surges and cascading waters from mountains.
Armed Forces public information office chief Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato said the helicopters of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) that were supposed to deliver aid to the distressed families have not yet flown because of the continuing bad weather.
While Ineng has already left, the prevailing southwest monsoon has prevented the weather from improving, dumping intermittent rains in the battered provinces, Metro Manila and other provinces in Luzon.
On Sunday NDRRMC executive director Alexander Pama and other disaster officials were praying that the weather condition improves so that the aircraft can bring relief goods to the isolated families in the barangays of Rancho, Casiber, Dammay, Oribi, Calungbuyan, Puro, Pantay-Tamurong and Villamar in Ilocos Sur.
Pama said rampaging waters threatened to completely wash away the flooded houses with the residents holed up inside if they are not rescued, underscoring the necessity to immediately rescue them.
He said the barangays have no higher grounds where the families can possibly take shelter.
The NDRRMC said earlier that only about 70 families were in the eight isolated barangays in the two coastal towns, which both sits near the merging sea and the Abra-Ilocos River, which swelled, but NDRRMC Vice Chairman Marnuel A. Roxas II said there were about 700 up to 1, 000 families.
As of Monday, the NDRRMC said that Ineng has affected at least a total of 16,499 families from the Ilocos Region, CAR, Central Luzon and Calabarzon. Of the affected families, at least 2,700, or 11,008 people, were forced to seek shelter in government-run evacuation centers.
At least 23 roads and 7 bridges in the same regions also remained impassable while 4 cities and 81 municipalities were still experiencing power outages.
As of press time, damage to agriculture and infrastructure already reached P165,680,855.