By Brian Campued
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Wednesday reported that it has provided more than P2.3 million worth of humanitarian assistance to storm-hit families as Tropical Storm Kristine continues to batter many parts of the country.
“The DSWD has already provided P2,326,978.60 worth of food and non-food items to the affected local government units (LGUs), specifically in the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, and Sorsogon in Bicol Region; Bacolod City in Region 6 (Western Visayas); and North Cotabato in Soccsksargen,” Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said in a news release.
Dumlao added that volunteers in the National Rescue Operations Center in Pasay City are continuously helping repack and haul family food packs (FFPs) to ensure sufficient available stockpiles in the agency’s main disaster response hub.
As of press time, there are about 2,071,884 boxes of FFPs available across all regions: 176,381 boxes in the NROC, 247,263 in the Visayas Disaster Resource Center, and 101,371 boxes in the spokes and last-mile warehouses of DSWD Field Office-5 (Bicol Region).
Based on the 6:00 a.m. report of the DSWD-Disaster Response Operations Management, Information and Communication (DROMIC), a total of 112,437 families or 457,489 individuals from 815 barangays in Cagayan Valley, Mimaropa, Bicol Region, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, SOCCSKSARGEN, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have been affected by Tropical Storm Kristine.
Of this number, the DSWD-DROMIC said 4,092 families or around 15,715 individuals are seeking temporary shelter in 267 evacuation centers set up by LGUs in the affected regions.
Meanwhile, the Quick Response Teams and Municipal Action Teams of DSWD field offices in the affected regions were also deployed to assist LGUs in the management of evacuation centers and related concerns.
In a tropical cyclone bulletin issued at 11:00 a.m. today, the state weather bureau said Kristine is forecast to make landfall over Isabela province as a severe tropical storm by Wednesday night.
—iro
