'Ompong' inflicts P4.13-B agri, infra damage in Cordillera

BAGUIO CITY-- The Cordillera region has reported a P4.13-billion damage in agriculture, fisheries and irrigation due to Typhoon "Ompong", according to the Cordillera Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council last week.

Based on a situation report dated Sept. 21, CDRRMC chairman Ruben Carandang said that the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera recorded the biggest PHP4.1 billion damage to agriculture that include rice, corn, high value crops, livestock and poultry as well as agricultural infrastructure projects.

                Corn crops recorded the most damage at P2.88 billion followed by rice at P807 million; high value crops at P336 million; livestock and poultry at P11.5 million and agricultural infrastructure involving 41 projects with P68.2 million.

Fisheries recorded a damage of P22,997,250 while the National Irrigation Administration Cordillera reported P215,000.

Some of the initial damage report was reported from September 17 to 19. Reports are still continuously being received by the CDRRMC.

Agricultural damage per province

Ifugao province, known for its rice terraces, has reported the most damage at P1.43 billion involving 40,000 hectares of farmland and affecting 34,183 farmers. This is followed by Kalinga, the region’s rice granary, at P1.19 billion, with damage to 31,000 hectares of mostly rice production areas, affecting 20,564 farmers.

Mountain Province incurred P769 million damage on some 10,000 hectares affecting 37,083 farmers; Apayao, P498 million on 27,000 hectares, affecting 25,299 farmers; Benguet at P179 million on vegetable plantation areas affecting 25,886 farmers; and Abra with P34.8 million affecting 24,588 farmers.

CDRRMC chairman Ruben Carandang, also Office of Civil Defense Cordillera regional director, reported that as of 8 a.m. Thursday, 49 road sections in the Cordillera were still closed to traffic due to road slips, road collapse, landslide, mudslide, debris flow, rock slide and falling trees.

As of Sept. 19, the CDRRMC has received reports of 14,538 damaged houses with 631 totally damaged. Abra province recorded the most number of totally damaged houses with 254; Benguet, 166; Baguio, 83;Kalinga, 74; Ifugao, 24; Mountain Province, 17 and Apayao, 13.

The Dept. of Education in Cordillera also reported that a total of 194 schools incurred infrastructure damages, with 161 totally damaged classrooms -- 63 in Apayao, 51 in Abra, and 47 in Kalinga . There were also 445 partially damaged classrooms.

The Department of Health also reported that there were 10 health facilities damaged by “Ompong”.

State of calamity

The CDRRMC chief also reported that the towns of Mayoyao and Aguinaldo in Ifugao have declared state of calamity on September 15 and 16, respectively.

The provinces of Kalinga and Apayao have declared state of calamity on Sept. 16, while Mountain Province on Sept. 19. The provinces of Abra and Benguet have earlier declared a state of calamity due to the monsoon rains in August.                The province of Ifugao was declared under state of calamity on Sept. 19, but no document has yet been released.

Power restoration

The CDRRMC also reported power in 129 villages in Baguio City were restored; Benguet at 17.86 percent or 25 out of the 140 barangays in 13 municipalities.

Mountain Province is luckier with power fully restored in all barangays, while power in Ifugao has been restored in 10 out of the 11 municipalities.

In Kalinga, power has been fully restored in Tabuk city, the towns of Rizal and Tinglayan as of September 20, while power in four other municipalities have yet to be restored.

Abra has still 7.48 percent of power restored or 22 out of the 294 barangays.

On the other hand, Apayao has yet “to see the light”.

Casualties

As of 5 p.m. Sept. 20, Cordillera recorded 79 deaths and 50 missing persons.

               The figure is mostly in Barangay Ucab, where a massive landslide occurred, which recorded 31 deaths and 41 persons missing.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government Cordillera (DILG) is still verifying two deaths to find out if they are due to typhoon “Ompong”.

The region recorded 73 injured persons with 11 still recuperating in the hospital. -- PNA