‘Gener’ death toll rises to 26

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 26 people died after typhoon Gener (international codename Saola) hit the Philippines on its way to Taiwan, the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Thursday, August 2.

Gener, which made landfall over Taiwan early on Thursday, continues to to affect the Southwest Monsoon bringing rain to Luzon and Western Visayas.

In its latest situation report issued at 7pm, the NDRMMC said that 26 people have died, 4 are still missing, 29 were injured and 125 rescued.

Almost half a million people have been affected across 13 regions, and 214,000 of them directly being assisted by the authorities.

Twenty-nine roads and 3 bridges have also been damaged by the typhoon, while the total cost of damage to agriculture and infrastructure is expected to reach P50 million.

A number of towns in Central Luzon as well as heavily populated coastal areas remained under waist-deep floods, with television footage showing residents wading in muddy waters as they tried to seek safer shelters.

Health officials meanwhile raised the alarm over a possible outbreak of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread by infected rat urine in flood waters, saying this could lead to a further spike in the death toll.

“We are appealing for help from the national government. Our town hall itself is submerged in waist deep water,” said Obando mayor Orencio Gabriel on government radio as intermittent rains continued to pound many areas.

Storm signal still over Batanes

Gener made landfall over Taiwan early Thursday, August 2, and has caused there at least four deaths so far.

In its 11pm bulletin, state weather bureau Pagasa said Gener keeps weakening and will be 680 kilometers northwest of Basco, Batanes by Friday morning.

The tropical storm was last spotted at 10pm 480 kilometers north northwest of atanes, carrying maximum sustained winds of 121 km/h near the center and gusts of up to 140 km/h.

It is moving north northwest at 15 km/h and will be outside of the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) by Friday.

Only Batanes remains under storm signal 1, and signals elsewhere in the country have been lowered.

Due to its effect on the Southwest Monsoon, Luzon and Western Visayas will still experience rain and moderate to strong winds, and residents near mountainsides and low lying areas could still experience landslides and flashfloods.

A warning for small seacraft venturing out to sea is still in effect over Luzon and Visayas. 

Health concerns

High sea tides on Thursday morning worsened the flooding by slowing down the flow of water into the bay.

“People are living in dire situations in evacuation centers and disease outbreaks are what could push the toll even higher,” warned Carmencita Banatin of the Department of Health’s emergency management unit.

“We have rushed medicines and doctors to evacuation centers to begin immunizing and stave off any explosion of diseases,” she told AFP.

Gener had caused tidal surges that swept over seawalls and flooded huge parts of Manila on Wednesday, forcing schools to call off classes and flights to be grounded.

Banatin said said health workers were expecting an outbreak of leptospirosis which has an incubation of about a week.

The worst outbreak of the disease occurred in Manila in 2009, when a major storm submerged more than 80 percent of the city of 15 million.

Of the more than 3,300 cases of leptospirosis cases recorded then, 249 died, making it the biggest casualty figure for the disease in the world so far, according to government and World Health Organization figures. – Rappler.com, with reports from Agence France-Presse