ILAGAN CITY, Isabela—Right after Typhoon Karen (international code name Sarika) devastated Isabela with severe crop damage, another more disastrous typhoon called Lawin (international code name Haima) followed.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of this province, one of the most severely devastated up north by Karen and Lawin, continues to issue updates of damage and situation reports.
As of Friday, the water level of the Magat Dam has reached the critical level of 190.65 meters above sea level, with an inflow of 603 cubic meters per second and outflow of 431 m3/s, with one gate opened.
“The four towns of Isabela along the Pacific Coast, like Divilacan, have evacuated 269 families. Maconacon has 400 still at evacuation centers. Palanan has 186 families, while Dinapigue reported 536 families evacuated,” Isabela Gov. Faustino G. Dy III informed the BusinessMirror.
To sum it up, Southern Isabela, with nine towns, has registered 1,320 families and Northern Isabela, with seven municipalities, has 1,275 families rescued, for a total of 3,986 families, or 11,611 individuals, who needed to leave their homes.
Prepositioned goods for the towns of Maconacon, Divilacan, Palanan, Dinapigue, Benito Soliven, San Agustin, Angadanan, Echague, Santo Tomas, Cabagan, Jones, Santa Maria, San Pablo, Tumauini, San Mariao, Cabatuan, Alicia, Cauyan, Reina Mercedes and Naguilian totaled 12,200 packs.
Relief operations in those towns are ongoing. Nine bridges in the province remain not passable as of press time, while clearing operations undergo.
Schools were closed due to trees falling on the rooftops. Some parts of the province remain in the dark due to power outages caused by collapsed and disconnected power lines due to offline telecommunications network.
Corn farms, which used to be dehydrated due to the recent dry spell, are now underwater.
“Our province is said to be the Corn Capital of the Philippines, but now our corn and rice farms are severely flooded. We need the help of the national government to recover from these massive agricultural catastrophes,” Dy said.
Image credits: Leonardo Perante II