DESPERATE TO RECOVER: 39 brgys ‘blown away’ in Barbaza, Antique By ANTHONY BADOY MONDRAGON and HAZEL P. VILLA Typhoon Yolanda Story Hub Visayas SAN JOSE, Antique – All 39 barangays of the fourth-class municipality of Barbaza, Antique was heavily damaged by super typhoon “Yolanda,” with authorities estimating overall destruction of “90 percent” and estimated cost of damage on infrastructure at P391,157,000. Local government buildings, public and private establishments, and educational institutions were also damaged, including the town center when the typhoon struck this town found in the northern part of Antique around 2 p.m. of November 8. The Sangguniang Bayan of Barbaza, after an emergency meeting, declared a state of calamity in the morning of November 9, and such state will remain until residents are sheltered and their needs provided for. There were no casualties or missing persons but 18 were reported injured. As of November 16, there were a total of 2,026 partially damaged houses while 2,430 houses were totally damaged with 4,456 households affected, according to the Damage Report of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) and Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO). Cost of damage to houses was estimated at P243,030,000 in the town 61 kilometers north from the provincial capital of San Jose and is the location of one of the highest mountains on Panay Island, Mount Nangtud that has an elevation of 2,325 meters. After “Yolanda,” all the roads in the municipality were impassable, including the national highway. The local government rented a chainsaw to clear the roads. The clearing started around 9 a.m. of November 9 and ended three days after. According to Reynaldo Manalo, MDRRMO-designate and Prechie Alavata, MSWDO of Barbaza, the upland barangays of Idao, Marigne, Mayabay, Nalusdan, San Ramon and Tabong Tabong were totally washed out, except for the barangay halls of five of the barangays. “The residents stayed in their barangay ‘til morning while waiting for the typhoon to pass, shivering and drenched in the rain,” added Manalo. Brgy. Lisub was the worst hit coastal barangay while the villages of Gua, Jinalinan, Ipil, Bahoyan and Yapo were also greatly affected. The MSWD were already on their second batch of releasing relief goods to the 39 barangays. As of November 9, relief goods were already delivered to all barangays, according to Alavata. “Barbaza is already in the rehabilitation stage and we are asking for temporary shelter like tents for our people so that they can already start looking for work to provide for their families. We could not solely depend on the local government because we will run out of budget,” said Manalo. Relief goods from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DWSD) and the provincial government arrived on Friday afternoon. More and more relief goods are arriving but the greatly damaged municipality needs more. Twenty evacuation centers were made available by the local government. However, the roof of St. Anthony’s High School was blown away, injuring the evacuees there. There were still evacuees in the evacuation centers until the afternoon of November 10. No outbreak of diseases was reported because evacuees were checked by doctors and nurses. All schools in the municipality had no classes since the typhoon. *** (Typhoon Yolanda Story Hub Visayas is a Citizen Journalism Portal created on November 13, 2013 by veteran journalists, student writers, mobile journalists, and photographers based in Iloilo City, Panay Island. The Story Hub tells the stories behind the stories when the typhoon lashed through Panay Island — severely damaging northern Iloilo and the provinces of Antique, Capiz, and Aklan.)/PN #BangonAntique SOURCE: panaynewsphilippines/component/content/article/10140-desperate-to-recover.html
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 00:16:21 +0000
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