''Odette'' second highest deaths since ''Yolanda'' in 2013: NDRRMC
Deaths from Typhoon ''Odette'' is the second highest after Super Typhoon ''Yolanda'' in 2013, a National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) official said Tuesday night.
In a recorded meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte aired on Wednesday morning, NDRRMC Executive Director Ricardo Jalad said other typhoons were stronger than ''Odette'' after ''Yolanda'' but ''Odette'' has so far recorded 407 dead and 78 missing.
''Yolanda'' logged 6, 340 deaths.
" Typhoon 'Odette' left a bigger effect and damages during this post-Yolanda period," he said during the Talk To The People on Tuesday night.
"We compared our conduct of preemptive evacuation in recent years and we saw that we did more in this, in preparation for Typhoon 'Odette', but still we suffered more casualties. Typhoon 'Odette' caused more casualties second to Typhoon 'Yolanda' since 2013, Mr. President. We now have 407 dead but still have 78 missing," he added.
Jalad said damage to infrastructure is at P16.9 billion as 460 infrastructures and 597,000 houses were affected while crop losses reached P7.6 billion.
"In the affected population, we have 1,242,737 affected families or 4.8 million affected persons in 38 provinces. And we have 475,160 displaced individuals," he said.
Because of the continuing problem on water supply and electricity in some areas hit by ''Odette'', Jalad said the government continues delivering bottled water and generator sets.
"This morning, Mr. President, there was a flight of cargo airplanes delivering 59 gensets to Bohol and that was received by the governor of Bohol, Governor (Arthur) Yap," he said.
"On our monitoring of donations, 113 government agencies provided assistance; 163 private donors. And these donations were brought to the following nine provinces affected: Bohol, Cebu, Southern Leyte, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Palawan, Surigao, Siargao, and Dinagat Island," said Jalad.
He said 18 countries have already offered assistance, "nine of which were already accepted. They are from Japan, China, Korea, US, the ASEAN AHA Centre, UNOCHA, Israel, Hungary, and Switzerland."
Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano said the distribution of the P5,000 assistance per affected family may start on Wednesday as the funds were downloaded by the Department of Budget and Management to the LGU's on Monday.
"The 4.85 billion (pesos) was already released by the DBM directly to the LGUs yesterday, Monday, January 3. We expect to start the distribution tomorrow, January 5, once the LGUs have completed the list of beneficiaries," he said.
Duterte also announced his plan to revisit the areas hit by ''Odette'' to make sure his order to help the victims were being followed.
"Well, anyway, I have a plan to go there again to make a review and see if my orders were followed. I just want to see what was the progress of our government intervention there. I will visit all of that again maybe in the middle or second or third quarter of January," he said. Robina Asido/DMS
