Early on, confirmed
reports of the province being isolated was already established after
the bridge in the major highway of McArthur town collapsed as a result
of heavy flooding in the area. Also the northern route, passing
through Taft-Wright was submerged in deep waters notwithstanding the
rockslides along Taft-Wright boundary.
In order to mitigate
the ill-effect of the flood, Evardone sought the ideas and suggestions
of the PDCC members, alongside the relief operations which are on
going in every municipality.
Firstly, in attendance
to the meeting was a team from the Philippine Airforce that came to
clear the runway of Borongan airport in preparation for the landing of
the C-130 which will be bringing in more relief goods from the
National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).
Secondly, Mayor Ewit
Villacarillo suggested that the assistance of the military must be
sought so that an aerial survey can be done for the government to
determine exactly the most appropriate intervention which must be done
soon, while Mrs. Eleanor Alido, DTI Provincial Director mentioned of
their mandate to gasoline station operators not to sell their products
in big volumes and that, some good volumes must be reserved as well
for LGU relief and evacuation operations.
But the National Food
Authority (NFA) expressed anxiety over the difficult transportation.
NFA officer, Placido Salazar said there are hundreds of NFA rice which
are ready for transport to the province but the damaged highways
hamper the shipment. With this, Governor Evardone planned to seek the
services of the Philippine Navy to bring over the much needed rice to
the province. He also advised NFA to distribute the rice
proportionately to the municipalities particularly those which were
seriously affected by the recent calamity.
Meanwhile today, the
team of Governor Evardone is heading towards the northern towns and
barangays in order to distribute relief goods to the families in still
flooded areas.
Because of the flood,
the rice granary of Dolores is now a brownish ocean with already
useless vegetation as Villacarillo put it, while small farmers worry
over their loans which they promised to pay this coming harvest
season. The week-long of successive heavy rains rendered an
estimated P100M damage in infrastructure, P30M in agriculture and P12M
in high-valued crops and vegetables.
Evardone reported
that Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and NDCC Chair
Gilbert Teodoro are coming soon to see for themselves the extent of
damage of the heavy rainfall.
