Samar Floods

BORONGAN, Eastern Samar, Philippines -- The floodwaters have ebbed and the north road has become accessible to trucks but the destruction wrought by the heavy rains in Eastern Samar province are just beginning to be seen.

The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council has listed 29,983 households, or 149,495 persons as either those who have been evacuated, those whose homes were flooded, those who lost their kin or suffered injuries, or those whose properties were damaged. Damaged houses numbered 2,000. The death toll has risen to nine.

Governor Ben Evardone said that out of the province's 23 municipalities, only three experienced minimal damage.

He said the province would need millions of pesos to rehabilitate the affected areas, especially the far-flung villages.

"However, our priority now is to urgently deliver relief goods to displaced families," he said.

Many families have taken shelter in makeshift huts and others evacuated to gymnasiums while their houses remain submerged in floodwaters.

At least seven villages in the municipalities of Oras and Maslog are still submerged in water.

Evardone earlier requested the National Disaster Coordinating Council to send a C130 cargo plane to deliver relief goods.

He asked for Air Force helicopters to deliver relief goods to the flooded and isolated villages.

Pacita Gavan, the district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways, said workers have been working round the clock to build a temporary bridge in MacArthur town.

Gavan said a temporary footbridge was completed for pedestrian traffic.

The office of Eastern Samar Representative Teodolo Coquilla said relief goods were donated for the flood victims.

In Leyte, the town of Carigara was the hardest hit by the flooding.

Damage to agriculture and infrastructure reached P50 million, said Mayor Anlie Apostol.

"Our agriculture is down by at least 70 percent as our rice fields are under water. Our barangay, municipal and provincial road networks suffered damage," Apostol said, , the daughter of chief presidential legal counsel Sergio Apostol.

Flooding, with waters reaching more than three meters, affected 258 families, or 1,458 individuals, in four of the town's 49 villages, she said.

About 93 families or 492 persons from the two coastal villages, West Visoria and East Visoria, took shelter at the town gymnasium, she said.