Eastern Visayas evacuate families ahead of ‘Ruby’

MANILA, Philippines–Provinces in the Eastern Visayas region, which is expected to be hit by Typhoon “Ruby,” have started preemptively evacuating families to safety.

“Ongoing ang preemptive evacuation,” Blanche Gobenchong, Office of Civil Defense director in Eastern Visayas, said on Friday.

“We cannot get (exact) details of how many have been evacuated because we are in the process of evacuating. We have 2,233 families, that’s 12,260 persons, evacuated but most of these are in Tacloban,” Gobenchong said.

There are also ongoing preemptive evacuation in Western Samar, Eastern Samar, Southern Leyte and Leyte.

“We’ve been holding meetings. Preemptive evacuation is our major activity as of now. Police and military personnel are also prepositioned in Tacloban and different areas because we don’t want a repeat of Yolanda,” Gobenchong said.

“Some residents have already evacuated after learning that the storm is heading toward Region 8, Eastern Visayas,” she said.

A regional report in the Office of Civil Defense in Caraga said 4,293 families or 19,259 persons have been preemptively evacuated as of Friday morning.

Ruby is expected to make landfall in Eastern Samar on Saturday evening or early Sunday.

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