The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) on Monday said that 5,000 families, or some 14,000 individuals, were preemptively evacuated from four regions in Luzon as Super Typhoon “Nando” approached the Philippines.
OCD spokesperson Junie Castillo told PTV-4 that the evacuees came from Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
He added that these figures are based on their monitoring as of the morning of September 22.
Asked regarding government efforts to protect those living in coastal areas prone to storm surges (daluyong) during powerful tropical cyclones, the OCD official said residents in these locations are among those who were evacuated preemptively by their respective local government units (LGUs).
“Our countrymen living near coastal areas were among those preemptively evacuated by their LGUs. We are observing that the storm surge is strong, as well as the wind and the impact of the waves along coastlines, hence we had them immediately evacuated,” Castillo said in Filipino.
Preemptive evacuation began as early as Friday and lasted until the weekend.
This was made possible based on the preemptive evacuation advisory issued by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to LGUs along Nando’s forecast track.
