PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Monday, September 26, 2022, that the country “may have gotten lucky” to have been spared from what could be a disastrous effect of Super Typhoon Karding (Noru), which hit Luzon.
"I think we may have gotten lucky at this time, a little bit. I think it's clear from what we did these last two days is that very very important is preparations, get people out of areas of danger, put all of your assets that you're going to use pagka mag-rescue, mag-relief, put them in place as much as possible," Marcos said in a situational briefing.
"It's really in the preparation...and then the LGUs (local government units) did a good job na explaining what the situation was, what needs to be done... ano 'yung plano. So, I think this is a good illustration of how that can really help," he added.
He also commended the good weather forecast from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
From a low pressure area, Karding developed and has reached maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour (km/h) with gusts of up to 240 km/h at its peak prior to its landfall in Quezon late afternoon Sunday, September 25. It slightly weakened before the Aurora landfall in the evening.
Authorities are yet to consolidate the number of casualties due to Karding as assessment is still ongoing, but there were an initial five fatalities in Bulacan.
The victims, all of them drowned due to flashfloods, were members of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council who were conducting rescue operations in Barangay Camias in the town of San Miguel.
Marcos conducted an aerial inspection of the affected provinces and he said that some areas “are still inundated with water.”
A total blackout is still being experienced in the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Aurora.
Close to 20,000 families were brought to a safer place prior to the onslaught of Karding.
"You might think that we overdid it, there's no such thing as overkill when it comes to disasters, so tama ito, we put everything in place. Mabuti na 'yung sobra kaysa kulang," Marcos said. (SunStar Philippines)