CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – As Typhoon “Ompong” flogged Calabarzon Region with heavy rains copuled with gusty winds, around six eastern and island towns of Quezon province were plunged into darkness starting 5 p.m. Friday, while temporary power glitches were reported in two Cavite upland towns.
According to Calabarzon Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Regional Director Olivia Luces, who chairs the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the power outage was reported around 5 p.m. in General Luna, Quezon. Soon after, power also went off in the adjacent towns of Atimonan, Unisan, Pitogo and Macalelon.
Luces also said power glitches were experienced in the island-town of Polillo, Quezon at 6:27 p.m., while power interruptions were reported in Mendez and Indang, Cavite although Meralco has immediately restored electricity.
She also reported that some early warning system units, which could have predicted water level, bogged down.
She said these weather equipment include the automated rain gauges with barometers located in San Salvador in Baras, Rizal; Looc, Cardona, Rizal; Mt. Oro-ASTI also in Rizal; and Bombongan, Morong, Rizal under Project HANDA.
The water level prediction equipment in Wawa, Rizal; Delos Santos Avenue Bridge along Azucena St. in San Mateo, Rizal; and Barkadahan Bridge, East Bank in Taytay, Rizal also did not function.
She added that the equipment of the PAGASA-Rizal Province Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) were found to be non-functional, such as the Automatic Rain Gauge (ARG) in Angono; ARG in Teresa; Water Level (WL) in Teresa; Tanay Bridge WL; Tanay Plaza Aldea WL and the Rizal Provincial Capitol Monitoring Device.
The OCD-RDRRMC regional director disclosed that they have established the joint communications group from the AFP-Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) and the Police Regional Office (PRO4A)-Calabarzon police force at the OCD-Calabarzon Training Facility inside Camp General Vicente Lim, Mayapa in this city to boost communications and reporting systems from the fields. (Saul Pa-a/PNA)
