At least 3,000 passengers stranded in Eastern Visayas

TACLOBAN CITY — At least 3,000 passengers have been stranded in Northern Samar, Leyte and Southern Leyte following the suspension of air and sea travel due to tropical storm “Ursula” that threatened Eastern Visayas.

The Northern Samar Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO) reported that 2,408 passengers—all bound for Luzon—had been stranded since Monday at the three ports in Allen town due to bad weather spawned by Ursula.

In Southern Leyte, cancellation of sea travel left 267 passengers stranded at the port in San Ricardo town, and 189 in Liloan town.

Several passengers were also stranded at the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City, Leyte following the cancellation of flights for Manila and Cebu due to bad weather.

Local officials in Northern Samar were bracing for the damage that might be brought by Ursula in the province that was still reeling from the devastating impact of Typhoon “Tisoy” that hit the province early December.

“It’s quite depressing because we have yet to recover (from Tisoy). But we will summon our resilient spirits to break the bone of hopelessness,” said Rei Joshua Echano, Northern Samar DRRMO officer.

Tisoy left a trail of destruction in Northern Samar, one of the poorest provinces in the country, with four people dead and 47,781 families (224,171 individuals) displaced.

The province is still under a state of calamity due to Tisoy that destroyed over P335 million worth of infrastructure and crops.

Edited by LZB