Storm surges proved more persuasive than local officials in convincing families across southern Luzon to leave their homes for the relative safety of evacuation centers.
As Supertyphoon “Yolanda” made landfall in Samar province early on Friday morning, storm surges whipped up waves several meters high along coastal communities, chasing away thousands of evacuees into government shelters where hundreds of thousands were already huddled as early as Thursday.
Two people were reported to have died, one from electrocution in Masbate province and the other from a heart attack in Romblon province, at the onset of what had been described as the strongest typhoon in recorded history.
Waves as tall as 5 meters battered coastal areas in Romblon, Catanduanes and Quezon provinces, while province-wide power failures disrupted communication lines in Romblon and Marinduque province.
Mimaropa
Storm warning signals were raised in Bicol province, Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regions from Thursday to Friday. Officials said 1,334 families, or 6,670 persons, had been evacuated in Oriental Mindoro and 34 families, or 143 persons, in Palawan province.
In Marinduque province, provincial administrator Eleuterio Raza said the government building had to rely on a generator set, as power was limited to Boac, where the disaster response command center was set up.
In Mogpog town, 78 families, or 315 persons, had evacuated its coastal and mountainous areas, according to Senior Insp. Adolfo Lazo.
In Romblon, waves as high as 3 to 4 meters battered the shoreline, said Bishop Ronelio Fabriquier of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente from Odiongan town.
A 65-year-old woman suffered a heart attack and died after seeing the huge waves lash at her coastal community, Romblon Gov. Eduardo Firmalo said, citing initial reports from disaster officials.
In Oriental Mindoro, 2,301 families, or 8,944 persons, were evacuated from 12 towns and Calapan City as of Friday afternoon, according to Fe Aquilizan de Leon, senior staff at the provincial information office.
Preemptive evacuation
In Calabarzon, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council director Vicente Tomazar said local governments had enforced a preemptive evacuation of 233 families in five disaster-prone municipalities. Seventeen families in Cardona town, Rizal, were similarly evacuated.
As of Friday afternoon, the total number of evacuees in Quezon had reached 1,687 persons from nine towns, according to Henry Buzar of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC).
The Department of Science and Technology’s Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Noah), meanwhile, warned the towns of Catanauan, General Luna, Mulanay, San Andres and San Narciso to expect 60 to 100-millimeter accumulated rainfall in three hours due to the supertyphoon.
In Batangas province, the number of stranded passengers had increased to 231 as of 3 p.m., with 184 vehicles and rolling cargo.
In the Bicol region, the Office of Civil Defense said the number of displaced families had reached 109,119 families, or 533,673 persons.
Meanwhile, Catanduanes provincial public information officer Ramil Soliveres said the occurrence of storm surges could cause the number of evacuees to increase three times to 4,200 from the original number of 1,414 already in shelters as of 6 a.m. on Friday.
In Masbate, a teenager died of electrocution while helping his family prepare for Yolanda on Thursday afternoon.
Electrocution
Enex Deinla, 16, a resident of Barangay Poblacion, San Jacinto town, was helping his father fix the roof of their house at 1 p.m. when he was electrocuted, according to Capt. Mardjorie Panesa, information officer of Army’s 9th Infantry Division in Bicol.
In Camarines Norte province, Carlos C. Galvez, PDRRMC officer, said 1,249 families, or 1,152 persons, had been evacuated at noontime.
In Albay province at 2 p.m. on Friday, Gov. Joey Salceda acknowledged “three unnerving supplemental bulletins [and] an almost error-free warning from Pagasa (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) as well as local chief executives, government agencies, the military and civil defense officials for the zero casualty in Bicol.
In Bataan province, the Army’s 24th Infantry Battalion built modified rafts out of empty drums to augment the rescue operation in case of massive flooding.
In Bulacan province, classes in some schools and work at the provincial capitol were suspended as a precaution should the supertyphoon veer toward central Luzon.
On Friday, the water level at Angat Dam rose to 208.30 meters above sea level, just a few meters short of its spilling level of 210 masl. With reports from Maricar Cinco, Jofel Lancion, Mar Arguelles, Romulo Ponte, Fernan Gianan, Shiena Barrameda, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Madonna Virola, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Greg Refraccion and Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon, and Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon