More than 5,000 Tacloban homes still without power

TACLOBAN CITY — Officials of a power utility here claimed that they were able to meet their March 31 deadline to restore power in this city, which was ravaged by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” [international name Haiyan] on Nov. 8 last year, but said many households were still without power.

The officials said that while they consider their work to restore power 100-percent complete, they were talking about power only in the main lines and not in houses.

Rommel Moron, maintenance and services division head of Leyte II Electric Cooperative (Leyeco II), said power lines connected to 138 villages here had been energized as of March 31.

But Moron said only a little over 80 percent of households in the city had been connected to power sources as of March 31.

Moron, an engineer, said Leyeco II intended to restore power this month to 5,820 houses that still have no electricity.

He said the lack of manpower and readiness of houses to receive power were the main reasons why the power utility could not reconnect power to all households.

Moron said power would not be restored to houses that have not been fully repaired.

Roland Hidalgo, city development and planning officer, and a member of the Leyeco II board of directors, said officials were aware of the urgency of restoring power in Tacloban City, which is still reeling from the aftermath of Yolanda.

“Having power will be an advantage for the return to [normalcy] of our trade and commerce, and even for our peace and order situation,” Hidalgo said.