Thousands stranded, evacuated in Calabarzon due to ‘Karen’

LUCENA CITY—At least 1,542 passengers have been stranded in different ports in Lucena, Batangas City and northern Quezon while 1,315 individuals were evacuated from parts of Quezon and Rizal provinces as tropical storm “Karen” (international name: Sarika) continued its journey up north Luzon on Sunday.

Vicente Tomazar, director of the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon (Calabarzon) regional disaster risk reduction and management council, said authorities also suspended the trips of 20 passenger vessels and 33 motorized passenger boats due to bad weather spawned by “Karen.”

He added that the region suffered no typhoon-related casualties as of midnight Saturday.

“No reported casualties as of reporting time,” he said.

Local disaster management councils in Quezon and Rizal provinces have initiated pre-emptive evacuation of 291 families (1,262 persons), most of them residents in coastal villages and those living in identified risk-prone areas. In Rizal province, at least nine families (53 persons) have also been pre-emptively evacuated.

In Lucena port, some of the 140 stranded Marinduque-bound passengers resisted the order of pier authorities to vacate the port building and transfer to the evacuation center in Barangay (village) Dalahican on Saturday evening.

“But some of the stranded passengers eventually yielded to the order,” Laida Aureada, staff of the Lucena DRRMC, said in a phone interview Sunday morning.

She said the stranded sea voyagers were being managed by their office. RAM/rga

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