Elderly woman drowns in Catarman due to ‘Ruby’ storm surge

An anxious resident of Borongan City, Eastern Samar province, watches large waves slam into the shore as Eastern Visayas braces for the landfall of Typhoon “Ruby” in the area on Saturday. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — An elderly woman drowned in Catarman town, Northern Samar where at least 1,000 houses were damaged by storm surges spawned by Typhoon “Ruby,” local authorities said Sunday.

Jonathan Baldo, the municipal disaster risk reduction officer of Catarman, identified the victim as Luz Cuanico, 75, of Barangay (village) Banquerohan Catarman town.

He said waist-deep floods were reported in several barangays in Catarman.

“We have 14,000 families or 61,589 individuals who were evacuated at the town auditorium, Cathedral church and senior citizens building,” Baldo said.

Floods were also reported in Catubig and Lope de Vega towns, according to Alex Ong, nephew of Northern Samar Gov. Jose Ong and chief of staff of his father, Rep. Emil Ong.

Rescue operations in and the gathering of reports from Northern Samar and Eastern Samar were hampered by poor communications after telecommunications giants – Globe and Smart – lost signal starting 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Yolly Crisanto of Globe said in a text message that the telecommunication firm conducted preventive maintenance but assured that restoration activities would start as soon as possible.

Blackout was also reported in the two Samar provinces after several electric posts had toppled due to the strong winds spawned by Ruby.

In Borongan City, Eastern Samar, floods were up to the chest but had slowly subsided as of Sunday morning.

But travel to Dolores town, where Ruby had its first landfall, was difficult due to fallen trees and electric posts that blocked the roads.

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