Cagayan Valley and the Pepeng Aftermath
Typhoon Pepeng is considered as one of the strongest typhoons to ever hit the Philippines in about 40 years. It brought rains, winds and floods to Isabela, Cagayan, Pangasinan, La Union and Benguet among other provinces. To make it worse, the Philippines was just reeling from the impact of typhoon Ondoy. With all that is happening, almost all agricultural produce of Northern Luzon had been destroyed or damaged by typhoon Pepeng. Thousands of families and millions of individuals were affected. After the flood waters subside come the difficult part of rebuilding!
Here are a number of news features released by various news outfits from all over the world.
‘I have never seen a storm like Pepeng’ from Inquirer.net
Director Prisco Nilo of Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said he had never seen a storm act so erratically.
“In my 26 years in PAGASA, I’ve never seen a storm like this, staying over land for so long,” Nilo said.
Agriculture loss to floods in Philippines tops 5 bln pesos from Xinhua.net
MANILA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) — Rains brought by tropical depression Parma which hovered above the northern Philippines for over a week had destroyed crops and farm products amounting to 5 billion pesos (about 108 million U.S. dollars), the government reported Monday.
UN sends expert from Manila Bulletin
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) has sent an official to assess the situation in typhoon-devastated areas in the Philippines.
UN-OCHA Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes will be in the country Monday and Tuesday to assess the damage in areas devastated by tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng” and confer with government officials handling disaster response and relief activities.
Holmes’ visit was announced by UN Development Program resident representative Jacqueline Badcock during the Manila launch of the UN Flash Appeal for the victims of Ondoy last October 7.
Magat dam still spilling water from ABS-CBN News Network
Typhoon “Pepeng” may have left the country but residents in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan on Sunday continue to worry as water levels in Magat dam remain critical.
Two of the dam’s gates were earlier opened to continuously release water.
Edwin Paison, dam and reservoir division’s engineer, said says residents should not be alarmed since there has been no heavy rains in the past days to trigger floods.
As of 1 p.m. Sunday however, the state weather agency Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said only 1 gate of the dam was spilling and at 551 cubic meters per second.
We just hope that the Rebuilding process would proceed right away to help the families whose lives were devastated by the typhoons that recently hit the Philippines.