By Alec Go
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Tuesday, April 12, recorded 20 deaths, one missing, and six injured due to Tropical Depression Agaton as it continues to bring heavy to intense rains.
Based on the April 12 NDRRMC report, 95,741 families or 139,146 individuals across nine regions were affected by the Agaton, including 4,528 who were preemptively evacuated in Region 7, Region 8, and Caraga.
Of the total displaced persons, 17,070 are staying in evacuation centers and 2,291 are outside evacuation facilities.
At least 321 areas were flooded in Region 5, Region 6, Region 8, Region 10, Region 11, Region 12, Caraga, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, while 15 landslide were tolled.
One town in Caraga has already declared a state of calamity.
Damages
As of Tuesday, 114 road sections and five bridges were affected, of which 71 are passable to all vehicles. Seaports affected rose to 39 with 6103 passengers, 1710 rolling cargoes, and 10 vessels stranded.
No telecommunication interruption or outages were reported, but two towns have water supply issues, and 64 have power interruption.
Seven totally damaged and 84 partially destroyed houses worth P709,500, and five damaged public infrastructures were recorded. Meanwhile, the worth of agricultural damage has been estimated at P874,000 covering 251.5 hectares of crops.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration said the tropical depression is forecast to keep a “slowly eastward” movement “within the next 6 to 12 hours before turning more east southeastward towards the Philippine Sea” starting Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
Agaton may “deteriorate into a remnant low within the next 24 hours” and its remnant will keep “tracking generally eastward over the Philippine Sea as it becomes assimilated within the circulation of [Typhoon] Basyang.” -gb
