CITY OF ILAGAN, Isabela -- At least 8,319 villagers coming from low-lying areas of the province have been preemptively evacuated, some by force, on Friday, hours before the expected landfall of Typhoon Ompong early Saturday, a report from the Isabela Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office said on Friday.
Most of the evacuees were from the four coastal towns of Maconacon with 440 families or 1,498 people; Divilacan, 232 families or 1,146 people; Palanan, 382 families or 1,469 people; and Dinapigue, 204 families or 679 people.
Except for Dinapigue which is accessible by an eight-hour road trip via Nagtipunan in Quirino, the three other coastal towns are accessible only by a plane via Cauayan City or Tuguegarao City or by boat via Aurora Province or Santa Ana, Cagayan.
Other towns with reported evacuees are Cabagan, Santa Maria, Santo Tomas, San Pablo, Quezon, Echague, Jones, San Agustin, Benito Soliven, San Mariano, Cabatuan, Reina Mercedes, Ilagan City, Gamu, San Guillermo, Burgos, San Manuel, Mallig, Cordon, Ramon, Santiago City and San Isidro.
Meanwhile, farmers are anxiously waiting for the impact of the typhoon, hoping that their crops would not sustain heavy damage.
Sixty-nine-year-old Bonifacio Senardo, a farmer from Barangay San Bonifacio in Burgos, Isabela is fearful for his palay but he said he could not do anything as the plants have not matured yet.
“We cannot do anything now other than to pray as my palay crops are not harvestable yet,” he told the Philippine News Agency on Friday.
His farm is part of the 141,699-hectare palay farms that would likely be damaged by "Ompong" in Isabela, according to the agriculture office in the province.
In a related development, Magat Dam in Ramon town on Friday afternoon opened two of its spill gates, releasing water at 1,463 cubic meters per second. The dam’s reservoir is pegged at 188.02 meters above sea level. (PNA)
