MITCH M. LIPA
Some 408 families from eight barangays of five local government units of Negros Occidental were brought to the different evacuation centers Thursday afternoon, Dec. 16, as part of preemptive measures conducted by the respective local disaster risk reduction management teams, in preparation for Typhoon “Odette”.
Zeaphard Caelian of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said that, in the town of Cauayan, the local DRRMO evacuated 860 individuals from 195 families in Barangay Poblacion, and they are temporarily sheltered at the Cauayan Central School.
Mayor John Rey Tabujara said they have provided food, medicines, and health kits to the evacuees. They also released food packs for the breakfast of the affected families on Friday.
The mayor said they decided to evacuate some residents of Barangay Poblacion because of past experiences of flooding due to the southwest monsoon. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Tabujara said they already felt the strong winds brought by “Odette”.
Municipal officials will stay at the command center to monitor the situation until the typhoon is over, he said.
The Sagay City DRRMO, meanwhile, evacuated 96 families composed of 331 individuals from the island barangay of Molocaboc. They are temporarily sheltered at the Matabas Elementary School in Barangay Old Sagay. Food packs and health kits were provided to each affected family.
In Escalante City, 31 families were evacuated from Barangay Old Poblacion, 29 from Barangay Jonob-jonob, 16 from Barangay Binagiouhan, nine in Barangay Tamlang, and one family in Barangay Malasibog.
In Hinigaran, 50 families from Barangay Tagda, Zone 5 were evacuated.
The Silay City government also started preemptive evacuation Thursday afternoon, especially of those residents in the shoreline barangays.
Caelian said responders in every LGU are on standby, and all logistics needed for emergency response are in place since the city and town DRRMOs have been notified and advised to be on heightened alert against the typhoon since two days ago./MML
