TROPICAL cyclone ‘Rolly’ may have weakened into a storm but the government believes that the havoc caused by the strongest weather disturbance to have hit the country this year adversely affected a little less than 20 million Filipino families nationwide.
At the first major disaster response briefing among top government officials, the government weather bureau PAG-ASA representative said that “Rolly” (international name: Goni) still poses a threat as Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 4 was raised over 20 areas.
It is for this reason that the Philippine National Police (PNP) started forced evacuation in provinces on Rolly’s radar.
In a report to Malacañang, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) director Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad said that of the estimated 20 million affected families, some 1.3 million poor families were directly on the path of the 60-kilometer diameter of the country’s 18th storm this year.
The same report hinted on nearly one million families evacuated in the Bicol region, while some 96,543 families or 346,993 individuals were preemptively evacuated as of 10 a.m., Jalad said.
The council has yet to receive reports of fatalities or cost of damage, according to Jalad.
The regions exposed to the world’s strongest storm this year include Metro Manila, the Cordilleras, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, and Zamboanga peninsula, according to Jalad.