‘Enteng’ pummels Luzon, kills 11 people

Tropical storm “Enteng,” which continues to pound Luzon after making landfall in Casiguran, Aurora, killed at least 11 individuals, including a nine-month-old girl.

In separate reports, “Enteng,” with the international name “Yagi,” dumped heavy rain in the northern part of the country for a second day on Monday, causing floods and landslides in several areas, including parts of Metro Manila.

The eastern city of Naga was among the hardest hit as tropical storm “Enteng” sliced off its coast overnight Sunday, leaving two people dead, including a baby girl who drowned as floodwaters rose, rescuers said.

“The floods were above head height in some areas,” Joshua Tuazon of the city’s public safety office told AFP, adding that hundreds of residents had been rescued.

Meanwhile, three people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a landslide along Daang Pari in Sitio Hinapao, Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City.

According to the Antipolo City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, three other people, all drowning victims, were killed in different parts of the city.

Relly Bernardo, the city information officer, said their bodies were recovered Monday in three areas of the hilly community, hours after creeks overflowed overnight.

Two separate landslides also claimed the lives of two people and damaged five houses in the central city of Cebu on Sunday, the local disaster office told AFP.

Gov’t ready

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. assured the public the government was on top of the situation and was ready to provide support to local government units affected by tropical storm “Enteng.”

In an ambush interview, Marcos noted that standard operating procedures were in place and were being followed by the government to ensure abrupt assistance to typhoon-affected residents.

“Of course, the main element here is we are monitoring the weather situation, and of course the flooding. We are watching it,” Marcos said.

He said local government units can decide on their own to suspend classes and work in their respective areas.

“The LGUs can also make their own decisions with that except if there is a region-wide assessment for the cancellation of school classes and work,” he said.

The President assured the government is “prepared for the aftermath” of the bad weather.

“As usual we had forward placement of necessities; we will just have to wait for the weather to see what it will do. Hopefully, it will avoid us but even if it does not, we have all the elements in place to support our people who will be affected,” he said.

Marcos said he had also ordered the early announcement of government work and class suspensions for the next few days, to allow the public to adjust to weather developments.

School, work suspended

Due to the inclement weather brought on by “Enteng,” Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero ordered the suspension of work at the Senate on Monday.

In an advisory, Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said Escudero ordered the work suspension which will be lifted on Tuesday, 3 September.

“In view of the inclement weather caused by tropical storm ‘Enteng,’ Senate President Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero has declared the suspension of work at the Senate today, Monday, 2 September,” Bantug said.

“The session will resume tomorrow, Tuesday, 3 September, at 3 p.m.,” he added.

Relief supplies enough

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), there are enough supplies of food and nonfood items for relief assistance in response to typhoon “Enteng.”

“As instructed by Secretary Rex Gatchalian, we are ensuring that there are adequate FFPs (family food packs) and non-food items in the National Resource Operations Center (NROC) and the Visayas Disaster Resource Center (VDRC) which can readily be dispatched to areas hit by ‘Enteng,’” said DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao.

Taking shelter

The NROC, located in Pasay City, serves as the main disaster response hub of the DSWD, while the VDRC, which is in Cebu City, serves as the DSWD’s central disaster resource hub in the Visayas region.

Dumlao said the DSWD has initially provided P410,000 worth of aid for affected families.

“Other DSWD field offices are on standby. We ensure that all our offices are ready to provide assistance as the need arises,” Dumlao said.

Currently, there are more than 1.74 million boxes of FFPs and P1.21 billion worth of FNIs available at the DSWD’s NROC, VDRC and Field Offices.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), a total of 14 families, equivalent to 63 persons, were affected, of which nine families, or 43 persons, are temporarily sheltering in an evacuation center.

All the affected populations were registered in Central Visayas.

Meanwhile, 14 ports were affected. Of these, 12 were reported in the Bicol Region, while two were in Calabarzon. Stranded passengers numbered 739 — 679 in Bicol and 60 in Calabarzon.

A total of 282 rolling cargoes, 22 vessels, and four motorboats are stranded. “Enteng” damaged 10 houses in Central Visayas, with nine totally destroyed.

Due to the heavy rains, classes and work in 143 cities nationwide were suspended.

Weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and astronomical services administration said “Enteng” may further strengthen from Wednesday onwards and be a severe tropical storm on Wednesday and a typhoon on Friday.

Power interrupted

In a related development, tropical storm “Enteng” disrupted power across 27 provinces, affecting 38 electric cooperatives (EC), according to a preliminary report by the Energy Resiliency Task Force of the Department of Energy.

While 34 of them had restored normal operations, four ECs in Calabarzon, Bicol and Eastern Visayas still experienced partial power interruptions.

Of the 512 municipalities affected, 467 have returned to normal operations. In total, 202,235 consumer connections were impacted by the storm.

In a report, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, said it was working to restore service connections to thousands of customers in areas affected by “Enteng.”

The company said on Monday that around 28,000 customers, representing less than one percent of its total customers, were affected by service interruptions as of noon.

The affected customers were mostly in Metro Manila and Cavite. The rest were in parts of Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Batangas and Quezon provinces.

“Our crews are working to restore power service to affected areas as soon as possible. We continue to monitor the situation and urge our customers to practice electrical safety,” Meralco vice president and head of Corporate Communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.