State of calamity in Ormoc City

LEYTE , Philippines   â€“ Ormoc City is in a state of calamity.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, a former governor of Leyte, said Typhoon Yolanda destroyed houses and buildings, and 90 percent of the city was wrecked.

However, based on an aerial survey,   Ormoc and neighboring towns were better off than Tacloban City, and the towns of Tolosa, Tanauan and Dulag, he added.

City health officer Nelita Navales confirmed four of the 17 people  reported dead from the typhoon.

Petilla spoke in Ormoc last Nov. 9 when the city council authorized the mayor to access some P100 million in trust funds from previous savings from calamity funds, aside from the P30 million this year, for relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Petilla said a storm surge in the area reached 300 meters, engulfing the first floor of multi-story buildings along the coast.

“We are still picking up dead people there,” he said.

“In Palo, around 100 people have been found dead, three of them barangay chairmen.”

The Palo Cathedral, which would have celebrated its diamond jubilee this month, was flattened, Petilla said.

Ormoc Vice Mayor Leo Carmelo Locsin Jr. said lack of crude oil and means of communications have hampered relief and rehabilitation efforts.

The city had run out of crude oil, he added.

Petilla said he would look into the possibility of supplying Ormoc and nearby areas with tankers from Cebu as the roads from Tacloban are still impassable.

The gas deposits are in Tacloban, he added.

Petilla said he came to Ormoc to ask the cooperation of city officials to ensure the smooth flow of relief and the transport of rehabilitation teams and vital equipment from Cebu and Mindanao.

“There is no more airport to speak of in Tacloban,” he said. “Only C-130 planes were allowed to land at Tacloban airport and no commercial flights could use it in the next few months. That’s why, the Ormoc port, the province’s gateway to Visayas and Mindanao, is important.” 

Petilla said the people of Ormoc  are lucky because the city’s deep wells are still functioning, allowing them to have drinking   water.

In Tacloban and other Waray-speaking areas, drinking water is not available, he added.

Petilla said it would take about two months to restore felled lines and bring back electricity to Tacloban and other Waray-speaking areas.

In Ormoc, it could be earlier as power plants are nearby, he added.

Rep. Lucy Gomez said over the phone last night that she has launched help for Ormoc and Leyte.

She is working through May Ann Solomon of the Rotary Club in Cebu to bring in relief to the city and the entire province.

She has already raised several hundreds of thousands of pesos for relief from private donors.

To ensure transparency, she will put up a website to show the amount of donations and how it was spent and distributed.

She is trying to look for means to bring in the relief goods that she has gathered like tents and basic food supplies.

She will also try to bring in chlorine tablets and tetanus vaccines and medicines.

Her family home in Ormoc was badly damaged, and  the biggest hospital in Ormoc, Ospa Farmers Medical Center will be closing   after it discharges the last patient.

It has no roof and the generator could stop anytime soon.

Gas stations have not opened

Councilor Godie Encas, the mayor’s point man in the relief efforts, said rehabilitation is slow because of the lack of fuel. People have not also reported and are presumably taking care of their own homes.

NGCP director Elmer Cruz said they continue their aerial surveys of damaged high voltage lines and cannot say yet when power lines could be restored.

Relatives from other places and abroad have also started worrying about their loved ones in affected areas.

Many remain incommunicado except for Smart here in Ormoc. Signal was restored yesterday at 10 a.m., but can only be accessed on higher ground or at least three-story buildings.

Facebook from Ormoc

Facebook-savvy Filipinos took to the social networking site to draw attention to Ormoc City yesterday.

Corporate executive Ricardo Villacrusis used Facebook the whole day yesterday to relay a cry for help for the thousands of people that Yolanda had displaced.

Villacrusis told The STAR his friend Iñigo Larrazabal was able to send a text message to him regarding his family’s plight, as well as others in typhoon-devastated Ormoc.

“But Tacloban is the one that is given media focus,” he said.

“Ormoc also needs our help. Nothing is coming out about Ormoc.”  

Villacrusis rallied his friends through   Facebook to help Larrazabal and others like him whose homes were razed, and who were not able to send out calls for help due to lack of power and a cutoff of communication.

Villacrusis said that he got the first distress text from Larrazabal at 7 a.m. yesterday.

Larrazabal told Villacrusis people in his neighborhood were taking turns using a cellphone and being charged from a car battery to send out text messages or make calls for help.

Villacrusis said only Smart has a signal in Ormoc, and that Globe is out of operation.

“Help Ormoc City: Just got a call from Iñigo, and from his voice the urgency and the need for help,” he said.

“They need canned goods, water and tents for Metro Manila please send to Bike Town 2240 Chino Roces Ave, Makati City. For Cebu Address is 15 Wilson St. Lahug Cebu City. Please label for Iñigo Larrazabal Ormoc Villa hotel which is now an evac center.

“The City has been devastated! Please inform our Friends in Media. Iñigo and Poochie literally had their roof blown away all of their belongings and their house are gone! Families in Ormoc have no more businesses or livelihood. Now is our time to help! “ 

Villacrusis said Larrazabal sent out a text  yesterday from Ormoc City.

“They really need our help their house has been destroyed,” he said.

“Media has been concentrating on Tacloban, but Ormoc City has been badly hit. No electricity and limited communication. They need water, food and tents. Please get the word out!”  

– With Rainier Allan Ronda