Super Typhoon Odette destroyed and damaged properties and agricultural products worth P74.2 million, the Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said in an updated report Tuesday, December 28.
Dr. Anna Maria Laarni Pornan, city DRRMO head, said Odette destroyed 745 houses and damaged 8,309 others in 57 out of 61 Bacolod barangays.
Despite the extent of destruction brought about by the typhoon, no death or injury was reported as Odette battered Bacolod and many parts of the province’s southern towns and cities, Mayor Evelio Leonardia noted in a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office.
Leonardia attributed the zero-fatality and zero-injury records to the LGU’s readiness and implementation of pre-emptive evacuation before Odette hit Bacolod.
Pornan’s post-typhoon update and the report of Pacita Tero, chief of the Department of Social Services and Development, were the basis of the Sangguniang Panlungsod declaration, placing Bacolod City under a state of calamity with the passage of SP Resolution No. 722.
Western Visayas, including Bacolod, was earlier declared under a state of calamity by President Rodrigo Duterte by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 1267.
Considerable damage to agriculture was reported by Pornan, who said that losses to the sector was estimated at P19.2 million.
Total losses to the fisheries sector and poultry reached P15 million and P2 million, respectively, while vegetables, rice farmers and growers of other crops lost P1.5 million.
Estimated damage to those engaged in mushroom culture was P600, 000.
Hundreds of trees were uprooted and CENECO posts and power lines were toppled as Odette’s strong winds lashed at Bacolod, rendering major and secondary thoroughfares and barangay roads impassable.
Bacolod was plunged into darkness late Thursday night with power restored two days later, while many areas still without electricity after five days even as CENECO crew worked on restoring supply 24/7.
Some parts of Bacolod experiencing power outage were also without water supply from Baciwa-PrimeWater.
Forty cell towers of Telcos in the Visayas and Mindanao areas pushed communications provider Globe Telecom to cut landline and mobile connectivity in Bacolod.
PRE-EMPTIVE EVACUTION
As Bacolod was placed under Signal No. 3, the city government asserted pre-emptive evacuation, focusing on residents living in high-risk and critical areas.
The move resulted in the evacuation of 5,639 individuals or 1,350 families from 33 barangays with no reported deaths and injuries.
Families whose houses were destroyed will receive P10,000 in financial aid from the city government, while those with damaged houses will get P5,000 and P2, 000 based on assessment, DRRMO cluster head Joemarie Vargas said.*