PNP lists 71 deaths, 53 injured and 20 missing
MANILA – The Philippine National Police tonight reported 71 fatalities brought about by Typhoon “Ulysses” (International Name “Vamco”) with 26 from the Cagayan Valley (Region II) region 16 from CALABARZON (Region IV-A), 9 from Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), 8 from the National Capital Region and six casualties each from Central Luzon (Region III) and Bicol Region (Region V).
The same report disclosed 25 were injured from the Bicol Region, 16 from CALABARZON, 9 from Central Luzon and three others from the Cordillera Administrative Region. It was also learned 20 were reported mission, seven of whom were from the Bicol Region, four from the Cordillera Administrative Region, three each from Cagayan Valley and National Capital Region and two from CALABARZON and one from Central Luzon.
To date, there are 8,791 evacuation centers with 77,187 families or 313,644 individuals. They have deployed and alerted 16,981 personnel from their respective regional and national headquarters. They have already received a total of 23 requests for assistance and/or rescue and have attended to most of the callers.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines reported that out of 38,634 rescued individuals, 2,716 of them have been attended to by the uniformed service. From 15 injured individuals rescued, 11 were rescued by the AFP. They were able to retrieve 8 of the total 53 remains and has listed 11 others missing.
Major General Edgard Arevalo, AFP Spokesperson said they have deployed 83 Search, Rescue and Retrieval Teams along with 83 land Search, Rescue and Retrieval tams complemented by nine air assets and 18 naval vessels.
“We have utilized PAF’s C-295 aircraft to bring the 505th Search and Rescue Group personnel and equipment for water search and rescue operations to flooded and trapped families in Cagayan Valley from Villamor Airbase in Pasay City late this afternoon,” he said.
He added two PAF Bell-412 arrived in Cagayan early Saturday afternoon and did aerial survey along Cagayan River. Four other PAF helicopters launched disaster response and relief operations in Enrile, Alcala, Iguig, Amulung and Penablanca towns in Cagayan province.
The Philippine Coast Guard has continued its rescue operations as well as aerial survey of the flooded areas in Region II and other similarly situation areas.
Traffic has resumed at 4:30 P.M. today at Barangay Canda Ilaya, Lopez, Quezon after floods subsided. Eyewitness accounts said almost three kilometers of vehicles on each side of the Daang Maharlika were stranded for hours. (Melo M. Acuña)
Images of distressed families and flooded areas in Cagayan Province taken by the Philippine Coast Guard. (PCG Photos)
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