VIRAC, CATANDUANES--LANDslides and floods blocked all access to villages in this province where 11,000 families await aid that would be delivered by a Navy boat.
The Philippine Navy will provide the boat to bring rice and other food items to the families who had been isolated since Monday.
Joseph Cua, governor and chair of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Committee (PDCC), said the boat would leave the port of Legazpi City in Albay for the town of San Andres.
From there, the PDCC and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will transport the government-procured rice and food packs to the families.
More rice
Cua said the PDCC was requesting an additional 1,000 bags of rice from the DSWD. The department earlier allotted 400 bags of rice and 400 food packs on Feb. 29. The items were delivered to Caramoran town by a Philippine Air Force helicopter.
Cua said 700 bags of rice had already been delivered to Caramoran and another town, Pandan, last week. The Church radio station Veritas is helping, too.
The government, through the National Food Authority, was selling rice directly to consumers to help prevent a food shortage. “We are in the same situation as Eastern Samar, only that we do not have many casualties,” Cua said.
The governor said he saw for himself the situation in two villages, Sipi and Binanuahan in Bato town, where families were in danger of starving as a result of floods brought by continuing rains since Feb. 16.
Abaca farmers were not able to dry their fiber, while rice farmers failed to dry their harvest of “palay,” he added.
Strong waves prevented fishermen from going out to sea, he said.
Roads closed
Major roads were closed, preventing the delivery of rice to the towns and the capital municipality of Virac.
Ignacio T. Odiaman, district engineer, told the PDCC yesterday that a circumferential road that links several towns had been rendered impassable.
Raging waters from swollen rivers washed out spillways in the towns of Pandan and Viga, while landslides blocked roads in San Andres, Baras and Gigmoto towns.
The PDCC received a report that four houses were buried by a landslide in one village in Gigmoto. In Baras town, floodwaters were a meter deep in the poblacion as of 4 a.m. yesterday.
Calamity
In two Albay towns, more than 3,500 families have been evacuated and 18 people were reported missing as heavy rains yesterday brought flash floods, less than 12 hours after an earthquake shook the Bicol region and the Visayas, provincial disaster officials said.
Jukes Nuñez, operations officer of the Albay PDCC, said 10 fishermen in Tabaco City and eight fishermen in Tiwi town were reported missing.
A total of 3,500 families in 47 villages in Tabaco were moved to 25 evacuation centers.
In Tiwi, he said, 73 families had already been evacuated as of 10 a.m. One house was reported damaged.
Swollen rivers and falling rocks were also reported in Barangay Joroan. A spillway was damaged in Barangay Nagas.
Floodwaters swallowed a bridge in Malilipot town, blocking the main route to Tabaco. All types of vehicles were barred from passing through the poblacion of Malilipot.
Tabaco Mayor Krisel Lagman, in a mobile phone interview, described the floods in downtown Tabaco as “waist-deep” and the river was just “almost one foot from under the bridge.”
Gov. Joey Salceda ordered the suspension of all elementary and high school classes in the province.
The floodwaters started to rise after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake shook Bicol and the Visayas past 10 p.m. Monday.
Albay is still in a state of calamity after officials warned that many communities are still under threat of landslides and floods.
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook parts of Eastern Visayas Monday night although no damage was reported.
Myra Dolina of the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology station in Palo town, Leyte, said the tremor was located northeast of Catarman, Northern Samar. Fernan Gianan and Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon; and Joey Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas
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