Three consecutive tropical cyclones in a span of 10 days have made life harder for over one million Filipinos across several provinces.
Storms “Nika,” “Ofel,” and “Pepito” affected a total of 1,145,942 people or 295,576 families, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
The series of weather disturbances to pummel the country also displaced at least 685,071 individuals, forcing them to seek temporary shelter in many Luzon regions, including Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
When Tropical Storm “Nika” made landfall in Dilasag, Aurora on November 11, strong winds damaged several houses.
“I was holding on to a wooden post,” resident Leonito Vallespin said in a television interview. “The post I was holding on was also being lifted by the wind so I was really scared. I only experienced this now…it was too much now.”
In Cagayan province, the farming region’s livestock industry took a heavy blow as “Ofel” struck.
“We have yet to account for the exact number of hogs, cattle and poultry lost from the floods, but I can say the losses were huge,” local rescue official Edward Gaspar said in a phone interview on November 14.
Motorist Janford Bonifacio said he saw Gonzaga residents digging for their animals, many dead but some still alive, beneath mud and uprooted trees.
“I saw people digging for their cattle that were still alive, and some were trying to save their hogs which they found among the logs,” he said.
Super Typhoon Pepito – the sixth typhoon to strike the country all within a span of three weeks – forced people to evacuate in Northern Samar.
Disaster officer Rei Josiah Echano lamented that damage caused by typhoons was the root cause of poverty in the region.
“Whenever there’s a typhoon like this, it brings us back to the mediaeval era,” Echano said. “We go (back) to square one.”
Damage caused by the three cyclones includes P469.8 million in public infrastructure and P8.6 million in agricultural losses.
Additionally, 7,401 homes were partially damaged, and 437 were completely destroyed. A total of 34 roads and 24 bridges have been rendered impassable.
The Philippines has, for the third straight year, logged the highest world risk index in the 2024 World Risk Report.
The report assessed 193 countries on their levels of exposure, vulnerability, susceptibility, lack of coping capacities, and lack of adaptive capacities to crises including extreme natural disasters, conflicts, pandemics and wars.
“At present, however, the hotspots remain in the Americas and Asia, as can be seen in the group of ten countries with the highest risk scores: the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Colombia, Mexico, Myanmar, Mozambique, Russia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan,” the report said.
“These countries have very complex risk profiles due to the combination of diverse exposures and high intensities, as well as higher vulnerabilities,” it added.
A 2019 study published by the Asian Development Bank, titled “The Impact of Typhoons on Economic Activity in the Philippines,” also showed that more intense typhoons will cause a reduction in local economic activity of up to nearly 3 percent. With AFP
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “Consecutive cyclones make life harder for 1.1-m Filipinos”
