LEGAZPI CITY—While the weather in Albay has dramatically improved, parts of its first and third districts remained unreachable by Monday afternoon after Typhoon “Nina” (international name: Nock-Ten) left the region.
Telecommunication services in Guinobatan, Tabaco City and Tiwi were still down, leaving Bicolanos in other parts of the country and abroad unable to contact their relatives.
“We don’t know why our communications here are down. Our towers were not damaged by Typhoon Nina,” Guinobatan Mayor Ann Gemma Ongjoco told the Inquirer.
As of 10 a.m., all evacuees in two evacuation centers have decamped. The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO) of Guinobatan has recorded 6,316 families displaced by the typhoon.
READ: Albay orders full decampment of 165,000 storm evacuees
The MDRRRMO, however, has yet to determine the final number of families and individuals affected by the typhoon as other villages could not report because of failed communication services.
Some parts of Guinobatan remained non-passable, preventing the local government from delivering assistance to residents.
Ongjoco said that in their initial assessment, Nina’s damage to rice was worth P10 million while damage to infrastructures may reach P25 million. RAM/rga