BALANGA CITY, Bataan -- The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) on Sunday announced that Bataan was somewhat spared from the wrath of Typhoon Ompong with no deaths recorded.
“Magandang balita dahil sa awa ng Diyos hindi tayo masyadong naapektuhan ng bagyo. Tumaas at na-spare ang Bataan (Good news because of God's mercy we were not affected so much by the typhoon. It went up and Bataan was spared),” PDRRMO chief Josefina Timoteo said in a meeting with all disaster and related agencies at the Bataan Provincial Capitol in Balanga City to evaluate the damage left by the typhoon.
Timoteo said there were preventive evacuations conducted Friday night involving 480 families, or around 1,480 persons, because of strong winds before the actual landfall of Ompong in northern Luzon.
Flooding was reported in some villages in the towns of Hermosa, Dinalupihan, Orion, Pilar and Mariveles but these immediately subsided - except in barangays Almacen, Parayray and Daungan in Hermosa, where floods rose from one foot to three feet.
There were some fallen trees along the Roman Highway and some other streets but these were immediately cut and the roads were cleared.
“No casualty except two persons injured when their truck hit a tree,” the PDRRMO chief said.
The toll, however, was in rice crops mostly in the flowering stage planted in more than 8,000 hectares of lands were affected.
Timoteo said that under the leadership of PDRRMC chair Gov. Albert Garcia, rescue and relief operations were in place. (PNA)
