Death toll rises as Frank leaves massive destruction in Iloilo
Evacuees at the covered parking area of SM City Iloilo.
At 150 kph, Typhoon Frank was not even the strongest to hit Iloilo yet today and many days thereafter, the entire Ilonggo community will feel its wrath and the massive destruction it left.
With Frank's course altered between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday, Panay Island was suddenly on its path that triggered non-stop heavy rains and strong winds for at least eight hours. The rest of the day until yesterday, sporadic rains still with strong winds hit Iloilo City and extensively, the province's 42 towns and one component city.
This, as hundreds of thousands in affected families who survived began to look yesterday for either missing family members and food. Government rations went scarce as even the C-130 that would have delivered additional national government food and supplies assistance never get to leave Manila.
Reported death toll as of 12 noon yesterday was “conservatively” placed at 120 as the missing reached at least 1,000. Unfortunately, the numbers are expected to rise as waters in some areas receded by mid-morning yesterday and clean-up in some villages begin.
Among the hardest hit are 98 of the city's 180 barangays or villages alongside the towns of Pavia, Santa Barbara, Tigbauan, Janiuay, Cabatuan, San Enrique and northern Iloilo coastal towns.
Yet massive damages and overwhelming destruction are similarly noted and reported all over Iloilo.
Power was cut-off in the city and the province thus leaving homes of some 2 million Ilonggos here in total darkness. By yesterday morning, among the first to have power restored was portions of Arevalo District in Iloilo City. Telephone lines were also cut-off yet fortunately, most families and those needing of rescue managed to call for help using cellular phones.
A similar sight and scenario were families – men, women, children and the elderly – on rooftops particularly in the stretch of Jaro District and Mandurriao in Iloilo City. Desperate call for rescue too from those on rooftops of homes including two-storey ones submerged in Pavia, Sta. Barbara, Leganes and Calinog, Lambunao, Janiuay and Barotac Viejo.
Floodwaters reached about 10 feet deep in Jaro and Mandurriao. The situation literally turned the area into a seeming raging river with strong current that virtually rendered rescuers helpless.
Media organizations were bombarded with text messages for help and appeals for rescue. It was also to be one particular day that balanced the need for both the rich and the poor Ilonggo families. Such, as plush villages went underwater including those advertised as flood-free. A popular Ilonggo lawyer and his family were among those who sought refuge on top of their mansion's roof in Jaro as thousands of other families were trapped inside their homes. Same situation faced by doctors, Judges, politicians and reporters alike whose homes before were never affected by even the worst of typhoons in the past. The weekend proved them helpless especially at the height of the flood and hours thereafter.
Road networks such as that towards Tubungan, Iloilo was totally cut-off as early as 4 p.m. Saturday including all alternate routes. First District Board Member Richard Garin said evacuation was ordered in low-lying areas only to monitor later during the day that even higher grounds had to be evacuated as well.
And everything happened so fast, recalled the families reached by The News Today(TNT). The raging murky waters rushed in about 15 to 30 minutes. The city's diversion road was turned into a virtual river by 5pm Saturday leaving scores of stranded commuters by the junction in General Luna Street.
Both city and the province will be declared as under a state of calamity. Vice Governor Rolex Suplico called for an emergency session at 10am today.