By Ferdie Domingo
THE death toll from Typhoon “Lando” rose to 20 on Monday as the storm ripped through Luzon, displacing 60,000 families and inundating the low-lying and upland villages of Central and Northern Luzon.
Residents of flooded farming villages were trapped on their rooftops and animals floated down fast-rising rivers, as Lando (international name Koppu) dumped more rain on the already drenched provinces.
After making landfall on Sunday morning on the east coast of Luzon, the slow-moving typhoon has brought heavy rain to some of the nation’s most important farming areas.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s the worst flood I’ve seen in my entire life,” farmer Reynaldo Ramos, 68, said as he walked through knee-deep water in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija, about two hours’ drive north of Manila.
Military, local government and volunteer rescue units were trying to help residents in about 70 villages that were under water, with the floods spreading, said Nigel Lontoc, a regional rescue official.
“The floods are rising fast and some people are now on their rooftops,” Lontoc said.
“The water is now too deep even for big military trucks, so our people are trying to reach them using rubber boats,” he said, but added there were only 10 teams at their disposal at the moment.
Lontoc said many thousands of people may be stranded in those villages, although it was too early to determine an exact number.
In Santa Rosa, water buffalo, pigs, goats, dogs, washing machines and furniture lined the sides of a storm-tossed highway, where about 200 residents had been seeking refuge from the floods since Sunday night.
Jun Paddayuman, 27, in shorts and a white singlet caked with mud up to his chest, pointed to his nearby house, where flood waters had risen to the roof.
“The waters arrived suddenly. We did not expect it at all,” he said.
When the waters first appeared in his house, he waded to the highway carrying his eight-month pregnant wife and leading his three-year-old son by the hand, Paddayuman said.
He said he had seen geese, chickens and dogs being carried off by the rampaging waters.
Nearby, two men pushed pigs placed on top of truck tire inner tubes in an attempt to save their hog farm from 1.2-meter high flooding.
Wide expanses of rice paddies had disappeared under torrents of knee-deep water throughout the towns and villages north of Manila because of runoff from torrential rain unleashed by Lando on nearby mountain ranges.
Lontoc, the regional official, said many residents were lulled into complacency because the typhoon had passed north of the region and did not directly strike the low-lying areas.
Lando initially hit fishing and farming communities on the east coast of Luzon with winds of 210 kilometers an hour, making it the second most powerful storm of the year.
By mid-morning on Monday, it was on the far northwest coast of Luzon and nearly out into the South China Sea, with its strongest winds weakening to 150 kilometers an hour, the state weather service said.
But the typhoon was still dumping heavy rain and it was forecast to cut back northeast over Luzon and not leave the country until Wednesday.
The Philippines is hit with about 20 major storms a year, many of them deadly.
The most powerful storm ever recorded on land, Super Typhoon “Yolanda,” hit the Philippines in 2013, killing or leaving missing at least 7,350 people.
Heavy rain and flooding isolated almost the entire central plains of Nueva Ecija, with the worst hit being Cabanatuan City, where roof-level flood waters prompted the closing of the Gapan-Nueva Ecija stretch of the Maharlika Highway.
The Department of Public Works and Highways closed 29 roads in the northern part of Luzon due to landslides, floods and debris caused by Lando. Eight of these were in CAR, seven were in Region II and 14 were in Region III.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said Kennon Road leading to Baguio City was also closed.
President Benigno Aquino III flew to the city Monday afternoon, distributing relief packages to evacuees.
Aquino handed out goods to 204 families at the Nueva Ecija High School where the refugees were temporarily housed.
Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali, chairman of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said they had identified two casualties.
The Palace said government agencies were working continuously to minimize the damage from the typhoon.
The Metro Manila Development Authority said it dispatched a 45-man team to three provinces in Northern Luzon to help local government units in their clearing and rescue operations.
Emerson Carlos, officer-in-charge, said the teams would be equipped with chainsaws, rescue boats, tents, medical kits and other tools needed for rescue operation.
The Office of Civil Defense in Region III reported 244,921 people from 269 villages in the provinces of Aurora, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Zamlabales and Tarlac were moved to higher ground due to rising flood waters cascading from the mountain ranges.
Provincial disaster offices reported 20 dead, but the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council had only tallied two so far.
Col. Joey Escanillas, commander of the Army 56th Infantry Battalion based in Baler, Aurora, said 18 persons were injured in Casiguran, Aurora and several houses were also wrecked after Lando whipped the province during its landfall midnight Sunday.
Casiguran, Quezon, the center of Lando’s wrath, was left isolated for two days but soldiers from the 56th IB under were able to reach the town by foot and re-established communication links.
The typhoon rendered 18 road sections and 13 bridges in Regions 2, 3, 5 and the Cordillera Administrative Region impassable, either because of floods or landslides. With Sandy Araneta, Vito Barcelo, Joel Zurbano and AFP
Typhoon Lando was tracked heading for the Cordilleras and moving towards Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte with 130 kph winds and gustiness of 160 kph at 5 kph per hour.
Storm Signal No. 3 remained over the provinces of Benguet, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos, Norte, La Union and Abra. – With Sandy Araneta, Vito Barcelo, Joel Zurbano and AFP