Legazpi hotels boom thanks but no thanks to ‘Ruby’

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Typhoon Ruby has forced residents here to troop to more private “evacuation centers” that provide bigger room space and guest facilities.

On Saturday, most hotels in Legazpi City were fully booked as a number of residents and tourists checked into these establishments, turning them into their own evacuation centers as Albay province braces for the strong typhoon.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said a number of those who booked rooms in these hotels were airline passengers coming from outside the province whose flights out of the Legazpi City Airport had been canceled.

But a sizable number of hotel occupants were residents of the city taking shelter from the storm.

Angelica Toledo, front desk officer of the Casablanca Suites on Alternate Road, said all of the 19 rooms had been occupied since Friday by families from this city who decided it would be safer and more convenient to stay in the hotel than their homes should the typhoon hit the city.

Crystal Gallipo, office assistant at Hotel Venezia, a hotel near the Legazpi City Airport on Washington Drive, said most of the guests were passengers of canceled flights who had been occupying most of their 40 rooms since Friday.

At the Alicia Hotel, also on Washington Drive in the city, all 32 rooms were booked, according to the front desk personnel of the hotel.

The situation is similar in about a dozen other hotels in the city, most of which—like Hotel Venecia, Alicia and Casablanca—were listed as billeting hotels for some 450 delegates of the the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation-Informal Seniors Ministers Meeting (Apec-Isom) delegates who were supposed to hold their meeting here on Dec. 8 and 9. The meeting’s venue was transferred to Manila because of the typhoon.

Salceda said the hotels and inns in Legazpi City had a total of 2,892 rooms.

No power failure

According to Salceda, it is possible that many of those who also booked rooms were middle-class residents here who would rather stay in hotels where there is ample electricity and water supply.

Power outage and water shortage have always accompanied the previous typhoons that hit Albay.

When Typhoon “Glenda” slammed through Albay last July, most of the province went without electricity for a month.

A number of residents in Legazpi City were known to have opted to stay in hotels and inns, with daily rates ranging from P500 to P2,000, as the establishments have their own power generators.

While some of the city’s well-heeled residents took shelter in hotels, most Albayanos stayed in government evacuation centers.

By 3 p.m. on Saturday, more than half a million of the province’s residents in high-risk areas had been brought to evacuation centers.

Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office, said that as of 3:30 p.m., 115,990 families, or 563,198 people, had been put out of harm’s way in the different shelters, mostly elementary school buildings in the cities and towns of Albay.

The evacuees have been identified as at risk of lahar flows from deposits at the foot of Mayon Volcano, landslides and storm surges in low-lying areas of Albay.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Ruby was expected to affect Albay by 8 a.m. Sunday when the typhoon crosses over to Sorsogon and Masbate.

 
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