The death toll from Typhoon “Rosita” climbed to 22 on Thursday, most of them drowning and landslide victims in Mountain Province and other parts of Luzon.
The death toll from the storm climbed even as President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he was satisfied with the government’s response to the typhoon.
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“I am satisfied with the response of the government,” Duterte said in a briefing in Isabela City.
“Everyone is here and I think everyone is doing his duty. I’d like to thank you for that.”
Duterte, together with several members of the Cabinet, led the briefing to discuss the government’s efforts to assess the damage wrought by the typhoon in Region 2 and in the Cordillera Administrative Region.
But Duterte expressed concern over the missing people who are feared to have been buried alive inside a Department of Public Works and Highways building in Mountain Province.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said 30,734 families were affected by Rosita in 1,019 villages in Regions 1, 2, 3, 8 and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
The agency said the families were equivalent to 111,639 people.
Meanwhile, at least 23 roads in Region II and the Cordillera Administrative Region were closed to all types of vehicles after those were damaged by Rosita, the Department of Public Works and Highways said.
The additional deaths were recorded in Banaue, Ifugao.
Eugene Gallangu Nahhog, 25, a backhoe operator, fell into a ravine while clearing a road on Wednesday.
The other casualty drowned in Cagayan.
Rescuers were racing against time to find more people under the debris two days after Rosita pummeled Northern Luzon, triggering landslides.
Soldiers were deployed at ground zero in Natonin, Mountain Province, to hasten the rescue of the people still trapped following the collapse of a slope.
A military emergency rescue team from the 525th Engineer Combat Battalion of the Northern Luzon Command provided technical support to the rescue operations.
Northern Luzon Command head Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat said his team was doing a rapid damage assessment and need analysis in the landslide area and in other parts of northern Luzon affected by Rosita.
Additional personnel from the Naval Forces Northern Luzon, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council unloaded 600 sacks of NFA rice for the typhoon victims.
A helicopter from Pampanga and two choppers from La Union are being used to aid the typhoon victims who remain isolated.
Authorities in Cagayan pegged the total evacuees to 31,671 spread across the province. Rosita whipped Cagayan for the second time, ripping off roofs and toppling power poles.
Most areas in Cagayan remained without power except in the municipalities of Baggao, Sta. Praxedis, Iguig and Sta Teresita. With Nat Mariano, Vito Barcelo and PNA