disaster preparedness

Meet the people who take care of typhoon evacuees in Bicol

Mavic Conde

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Meet the people who take care of typhoon evacuees in Bicol

COLLEAGUES. Rhorie Asis and Leni Rubio stand outside the MDRRMO office of San Miguel town in Catanduanes.

Photo by Mavic Conde

These LGU staff leave their own families in a safe place before doing their duties whenever typhoons hammer the region

Every time a pre-emptive evacuation is implemented, there is always a local government worker who is in charge of the evacuees.

It could be the village chief, or a barangay councilor. It could also be a representative from the municipal disaster risk reduction management office (MDRRMO). For them to efficiently do this task, they have to leave their family in a safe place.

Armando Cortez, a barangay secretary in Tiwi town who was assigned the task together with councilor Josie Cereza, knew that.

“Upon learning the intensity and direction of typhoon Rolly, I asked my family to stay in a relative’s house in Tabaco City because I wouldn’t be there for them; and I was expecting our house wouldn’t stand the typhoon,” he said.

As forecast, super typhoon Rolly slammed Tiwi town early morning of November 1, wreaking havoc on the entire town.

The town’s gymnasium, the evacuation site for some of his constituents in Barangay Baybay and which Cortez and Cereza were assigned to guard, was not spared.

“The gym’s roll up was dislodged, which resulted in a smoky atmosphere inside due to the onslaught of severe winds and rains from outside,” Cortez said.

Eventually, it was the gym’s ventilator that yielded to the winds. “That time we were already in standing position because we would get wet if we spread out. Then we moved the kids, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and senior citizens to the buildings next to the gym, the rural health unit building and the DILG office, by destroying the gym’s exit area,” he said.

Cortez added that by 10 am he and Cereza managed to go to the municipal office (which was a few meters away from the gymnasium) despite the pounding rain and howling winds. “We asked for the noodles that we brought during the evacuation to be cooked, and our town mayor gave us bread for breakfast with the evacuees,” he said.

According to Cortez, throughout the ordeal their communications with the chief MDRRO and fellow barangay secretaries were open. When the signal from telecom providers went off, they had to rely on two-way-radio communication.

Two female staff in the municipal office of San Miguel town in Catanduanes had to do the same to their families because of their jobs. Rolly made its first landfall in Catanduanes.

Rhorie Asis, a mother of two, was one of them. As the local DRRM assistant, she had to be present at their office which served as an evacuation site to accompany the evacuees.

Unlike Cortez, her house was made of concrete and had a second floor. However, her mother-in-law suffered from stomach ache and chills even after the typhoon because she was left alone with her two kids. Her police husband was also on duty during that time.

“During the typhoon, we were here behind this main door as if we were wrestling with the strong winds,” Asis recalled.

Her colleague, a single mother with 3 children and employed under a job order, brought her two children with her at the evacuation center.

“My oldest son was the one left in our house whom I instructed to move to our neighbor with a concrete house should the typhoon get severe,” Leni Rubio said. And the boy did as told because since the roof of their house was destroyed and their kitchen utensils were carried away by the flood.

According to Rubio, the 4 windows on the second floor of the building were damaged at the height of the typhoon. So they were all stuck on the first floor.

Bicol Phivolcs chief Ed Laguerta said during a seminar for media practitioners in Albay that this kind of readiness is expected for the likes of Cortez and Asis.

“They have to keep their families safe first, so they can do their job properly. Otherwise they’ll be preoccupied with worry,” he said. – Rappler.com

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