Baguio and Cordillera hit by 20 landslides: 8 persons die as Typhoon Karen slams north Luzon

BAGUIO CITY – Eight persons, including three children, were killed while a woman was injured when landslides triggered by the heavy rains and strong winds of Typhoon Karen buried their houses in this mountain resort city and in the nearby town of Itogon, Benguet, and in La Union Thursday morning.

Reports reaching Office of the Civil Defense in the Cordillera said latest casualties were farmer Arnold Atitiw, 37 and Camille Rasalan, 12.

Atitiw was dug up dead from the rubble of a landslide in Sitio nabalicong, Barangay Natubleng, Buguias, Benguet, Wednesday afternoon while Rasalan was hit by a falling tamarind tree in Abra Thursday.

The OCD identified the lone fatality in Baguio City as Petra Cadatar, 72, a resident of Purok 7, Pinsao Pilot Project, Baguio City, who died after a wall beside her house fell and covered the kitchen while she was busy preparing breakfast.

Hestery Ann Carpizo, 23, a resident of Barangay Santa Escolastika, in Baguio suffered minor injuries after she was hit by a cabinet which fell inside her house at the height of Karen Wednesday morning.

She is now confined at the Baguio General Hospital where she is undergoing observation for injuries.

Strong winds and heavy rains of Typhoon Karen resulted in over 20 landslides and erosion in the city in a span of 24 hours.

Many trees were also felled in various parts of the city as typhoon signal No. 2 was raised by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration over the region.

In Benguet, three children died after their house near a mountain slope was buried by landslide at Antamok, Itogon town Wednesday morning.

The children, who were not identified, were reportedly aged 10, 3, and 1.

Karen also caused the closure of the Kennon Road, Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya road, the Mountain Province section of the Halsema Highway, the Acop-Kapangan-Kibungan Road, the Bokod-Kabayan-Abatan road in Benguet, the MountainProvince-Kalinga Road and the Bontoc-Tabuk road due to series of landslides in various sections of those roads.

Power outages were also reported in Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao, Mountain Province, and Abra due to the continuous strong rains, while "Karen" was en route to Ilocos Norte.

Despite the closure of some major roads in Benguet, the supply of agricultural crops was still normal at press time at the La Trinidad trading post.

But prices have started to rise in a span of less than six hours due to the perceived adverse effects of the typhoon to many crops.

Due to the heavy rains, water was released from the Ambuclao Dam and Binga Dam as the two dams reached their critical spilling level. The water flowed down the Agno River in Pangasinan.

The OCD warned residents along the Agno River to be alert for the expected floods in the lowlands because of the huge volume of water released by the two dams.

Typhoon Nuri, locally named Karen, skirted the northeastern tip of Cagayan province with gusts of up to 106 mph (170 kph), but its outer bands engulfed most of the mountainous northern provinces.

Chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said Nuri was a powerful system that likely would gain strength as it moved across Babuyan and Calayan islands in the Luzon Strait toward Hong Kong and Guangdong in eastern China.

He said the typhoon was enhancing monsoon rains and that strong winds would continue until Thursday morning. – With reports from Dexter See, Armand Tamaray and Jerry Padilla