Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Baguio in state of calamity By Rimaliza Opiña and Jane Cadalig
THE City Council unanimously declared the city under a state of calamity following the extent of damage caused by typhoon Cosme, which battered Luzon recently.
At 7 p.m. last Saturday, Baguio and Benguet were under storm signal number three. Passengers who intended to travel to the lowlands were stranded in Baguio. Some passengers had to wait for at least four hours just to get a cab.
No casualties were recorded in Baguio, but Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. asked the council to declare a state of calamity, following a number of landslides and the flooding of the City Camp Lagoon because of the heavy downpour.
Phone lines and electricity have also been cut off because of the strong winds. The Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) restored electricity in some parts of Baguio between 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
Reports from the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) Office showed that around 40 families were affected by the recent typhoon.
The Office of Civil Defense, meanwhile, reported P3.24 million of damages in infrastructure in the Cordillera.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) also reported at least four people killed and two others were injured. Thousands of families were affected by the typhoon.
Zambales and Pangasinan are the hardest hit by the typhoon.
Cosme is the fourth typhoon to hit the country this year.
Meanwhile, major and secondary roads in the region are still closed to traffic on Tuesday due to the typhoon.
Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan however said the supply of vegetables is still sufficient despite the condition of major highways.
Supply of agricultural commodities is most vulnerable whenever national highways are closed to traffic due to landslides.
The Baguio-Bontoc Road, particularly the Pakpakitan section, is closed due to the recurring slides. It is still undergoing clearing operations as of this time.
The Pakpakitan section is one of the major routes of agricultural crops from Northern Benguet and Mountain Province.
Benguet-Vizcaya Road, one of the primary routes in the region, is also closed and undergoing clearing operations.
In Mountain Province, the road connecting Cagayan Province could not also be traversed because of the undergoing clearing operations.
Secondary roads, including Itogon-Dalupirip, Baguio-Sto. Tomas, Pico Lamtang, Baguio-Bua-Itogon and Acop-Kapangan, are closed to traffic.
Meanwhile, Fongwan and the Office of the Benguet Provincial Agriculture are mum on the damages brought by Cosme in the agriculture industry.
Officials said the cost of damage is yet to be estimated as they are still awaiting reports from the field personnel.
Cosme left 10 houses wrecked and 18 partially damaged in Benguet.
Two were reported injured, while 40 families were adversely affected.
The Provincial Social Welfare and Development (PSWD) Office is giving relief assistance like sacks of rice to the affected families.
