As the country faced back-to-back powerful cyclones in a week.
In his directive on Monday, November 10, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. oversaw disaster response efforts and presided over a situation briefing on the impact of Super Typhoon Uwan (Fung-Wong) held in Malacañang.
During which, directed all government agencies to continue their assistance to all affected residents of the recent typhoons, with the other being Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi), and continue closely monitoring the impact of the super typhoon until Tuesday.
The Chief Executive ordered the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Health (DOH) to continue providing assistance and ensure that medical teams are available to evacuees.
Also part of the instructions he made was for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), whom he directed to start rehabilitating damaged roads as soon as possible.
EFFECTS OF ‘UWAN’
In the briefing, Marcos also remarked on the effective preparedness measures made by agencies as the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) noted that preemptive evacuation efforts for 426,000 families was able to significantly minimized casualties.
The office also reported that the province of Pangasinan was the most severely affected by massive flooding, but floodwaters have started subsiding as Uwan‘s center further moves away from the Luzon landmass.
During that meeting, the Civil Defense agency also confirmed reports of two fatalities as a result of the super typhoon, with two others still undergoing validation while rescue operations are still ongoing.
71 roads were also reported to be currently impassable across Central Luzon, the Aurora province, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)—particularly in Mountain Province, Benguet, and Apayao.
155 power interruptions were recorded, causing power to be knocked out in most of the Ilocos region (Region I), although 15 were already restored.
One area in Aurora was also isolated due to landslides, while a segment was cut off along the national road from Dipaculao to Casiguran.
EVACUEES
Meanwhile, the DSWD noted in the briefing that it continues to monitor evacuation operations and the status of evacuees in centers.
It added that since the evacuees were preemptively evacuated, they are expected to return to their homes once the floodwaters have receded.
In the midst of the super typhoon’s onslaught, DSWD said that the Bicol region had the most number of families in evacuation centers as 100,050 families were affected in the region—44,000 affected of those were from the Camarines Sur province.
Meanwhile, some other 20,000 families were affected in Quezon province.