26 dead, 18 missing, as Typhoon Nock-Ten leaves

Typhoon Nock-ten, locally known as Nina, left 26 dead, including 18 missing, as it exited to the South China Sea, 355 kilometres northwest of Palawan, on Wednesday, following an initial deadly landfall and six more weaker ones that affected southern Luzon, central Visayas, and upper southwest Philippines since Christmas Day, officials said.

“Rescue operation has continued because not one of the 18 missing people was ever recovered from a vessel that sank off Mabini, Batangas, in southern Luzon,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) spokesman Mina Marasigan told Gulf News.

One of the fatalities occurred in that shipwreck, said Marasigan, adding that three more people had drowned initially, and a woman was hit by a collapsed wall in Albay, which was devastated when Nock-ten barrelled from the Pacific Ocean at 255km/h at midnight of December 25.

Two more people had died when hit by debris as Nok-ten landed, weakened, on Quezon Province, southern Luzon, said Marasigan, adding, “Although Nock-ten spared Metro Manila, it left four regions, nine provinces four cities, 77 municipalities, and 384 villages from southern Luzon to upper southwest Philippines underwater, without electricity, and 13 damaged roads and three bridges.”

Nock-ten displaced 87,059 families or 429,486 people, half of whom were billeted in hastily established evacuation centres, said Marasigan

Energy officials vowed to restore electricity in severely affected areas in Catanduanes and Camarines Sur of the Bicol region and Quezon and Batangas provinces in southern Luzon,

“Volunteers helped repack relief goods at the warehouse of the social welfare department in Metro Manila’s suburban Pasay City,” said Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, adding streets in priority areas which declared state of calamity in the Bicol region were cleared of debris, fallen electric posts and trees to facilitate the entry of relief goods in isolated areas.

Volunteers also joined policemen and soldiers in distributing relief packs on foot in all evacuation centres and in isolated areas, said Taguiwalo.

To help local government units with depleted funds, President Rodrigo Duterte allotted P50 million (Dh3.6 million) aid for those affected by Typhoon Nina — he announced it during a visit to Camarines Sur on Tuesday.

“Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol has money, corn and rice, and P50 million to give you. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation has a very good earning this year (and it can help us),” Duterte said, adding he has allocated P1 billion for social services nationwide, and this should help local governments respond when calamities occur.

Advising local governments affected by the storm to immediately focus on rehabilitation, Duterte said, “We have to return to normality as soon as possible.”

If Nock-ten did not weaken on second and several other landfalls, it would have been as deadly as the four-grade Typhoon Haiyan that left more than 6,500 dead and millions missing in central Philippines in November 2013,

Twenty typhoons rudely savage the Philippines every year, between June and December

source : gulfnews