CITY OF SANTIAGO — As most of the 3,700 typhoon evacuees returned to their houses on Tuesday morning, volunteers and rescuers immediately undertook clearing operations on tree-blocked roads in Isabela, Kalinga and Nueva Vizcaya provinces.
Typhoon Rosita made landfall in Isabela’s coastal town of Dinapigue at 4 a.m. on Tuesday.
Along Kalinga Road near its boundary with Isabela, personnel of the 1st Kalinga Provincial Mobile Force Company cleared roads of fallen trees and debris, checked the Canao bridge, and warned villagers against staying in low-lying areas.
“This is to ensure the safety of motorists,” Supt. Joseph Santos, 1st Kalinga Mobile Force Company commander, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a telephone interview .
In Jones town also in Isabela, villager Emmanuel Pascual Alejandro rued the onslaught of “Rosita” but expressed relief that no fatality has been recorded so far.
“We suffered farm losses again, but it is okay, as long as no lives were lost,” he said.
In Reina Mercedes town still in Isabela, farmer Sebastian Capalungan said his palay farms were swollen with water, causing him to suffer more losses after Typhoon Ompong, which hit the province last September 15.
In Diadi in Nueva Vizcaya, the national road was temporarily declared not passable for hours on Tuesday morning due to fallen trees, cut power lines and soil erosions but after clearing operations, movement of traffic was partly restored before 12 noon, Senior Insp. Odlanyer Edrinal, town police chief, said. (/PNA)
