LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines — A total of 105 families composed of 340 persons in Garchitorena town in Camarines Sur were evacuated to safer ground on Saturday in anticipation of possible flooding and landslides due to moderate to heavy rains brought by Typhoon Bising (internationally known as Surigae) as it neared Bicol.
Camarines Sur Gov. Miguel Luis “Migz” Villafuerte issued the order earlier to local disaster councils in the province to start preemptive evacuation in areas vulnerable to flooding and landslides, according to Gremil Alexis Naz, spokesperson of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Bicol.
Also on Saturday, the OCD declared a red alert status in Bicol after the state weather bureau predicted that Bising, though expected not to make landfall, could bring moderate to heavy rainfall.
As of 7 p.m., the Philippine Coast Guard here reported that 623 persons, 142 trucks, 76 cars, three buses, and eight sea vessels were marooned in major ports in three provinces — Albay, Sorsogon, and Camarines Sur.
The Philippine National Police reported that 173 trucks bound for the Visayas and Mindanao were stranded along the Maharlika Highway in Bato town in Camarines Sur and Pilar town in Sorsogon.