125 Nueva Ecija villages still without power

CABANATUAN CITY-–A total of 125 villages in 14 towns and three cities in Nueva Ecija province are still without electricity after Typhoon “Santi” toppled electric posts and cut off power transmission lines on October 11 and 12.

Police said electricity in 25 of 89 barangay (villages) in this city, a major commercial center of Nueva Ecija, has yet to be restored. Most of the villages are in the western part of Cabanatuan.

Power in seven villages in Gapan City and four in Palayan City have yet to be restored. Among the towns, Jaen has 20 villages without power, 13 in Aliaga, 12 in Zaragoza, and nine each in Quezon, Sta. Rosa and San Leonardo.
The rest of the towns with one to six villages still without electricity are Licab, Laur, Carranglan, Bongabon, Laur, General Tinio and San Isidro, police reports said.

Electricity in these areas, except Cabanatuan, is provided by the Nueva Ecija Electric Cooperative (Neeco). This city’s power supply is provided by the Cabanatuan Electric Corp. (Celcor).

Earlier reports showed that the typhoon’s strong wind either toppled or damaged 201 electric posts of the National Grid Corp. of the Phils., which provides electricity to power distributors in the province.

In this city, 37 major electric posts (60-foot, 69-kilovolt lines) and hundreds of smaller posts in 89 villages were damaged by the typhoon, cutting off power for five days. Anselmo Roque, Inquirer Central Luzon