SAFETY IS PRIORITY Members of a government rescue team brave rising floodwaters in Puerto Princesa City to bring residents to safer grounds. 鈥擯hoto courtesy of Marine Battalion Landing Team 9 and Coast Guard District-Palawan
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, PALAWAN, Philippines 鈥� More than 1,000 families in Palawan displaced by floods triggered by torrential rains early this week have started to receive relief goods from the provincial government as local communities try to recover from the devastation.
Lawyer Christian Jay Cojamco, the provincial information officer, said 4,616 people (1,281 families) were the initial beneficiaries of the aid. The provincial Social Welfare and Development Office initially distributed 500 food packs in every flood-affected town.
READ: Shear line, ITCZ, amihan to bring rains across PH
State of calamity
He said the relief packs from the provincial government were meant to augment the goods distributed by local government units (LGUs).
鈥淲e are still waiting for the final data because the LGUs are still conducting validation of the evacuees,鈥� Cojamco said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
He said they were still consolidating the results of the rapid data and needs analysis of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) for a possible declaration of a state of calamity in the affected towns
鈥淩ight now, there is still no municipality that has declared a state of calamity, so we still have no basis for the province to [issue a similar declaration],鈥� Cojamco said.
The affected families were in the municipalities of Aborlan, Narra, Sofronio Espa帽ola and Brooke鈥檚 Point, according to the PDRRMO.
The province鈥檚 disaster response council will convene on Friday to further assess the damage and discuss the possibility of declaring a province-wide state of calamity.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculture has also yet to release a report on crop and fishery losses.
Last weekend, the combined effects of three weather systems鈥攊ntertropical convergence zone and shear line that was aggravated by a low-pressure area affecting the southwestern side of Palawan鈥攖riggered widespread flooding, prompting evacuations in the province.
Sonny Pajarilla, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration weather specialist, on Monday, said the nonstop downpour netted a record volume of 342 millimeters of rainfall that broke the 50-year record of 269.3 mm in December 1975.
Five people, including two children, also died when their van was swept away by floods at the border of Aborlan town and Puerto Princesa City on Sunday night. 鈥擥eraldford Ticke