PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — Tropical Depression Urduja left a housewife dead in the southern Palawan town of Brooke’s Point before exiting Tuesday morning.
Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) officer-in-charge Cruzalde Ablaña confirmed Wednesday that 38-year-old Lupetya Arpenio drowned on Tuesday morning as she and her husband were crossing a river in Sitio Kabulnucan, Barangay Imulnod.
“It is confirmed that she drowned and died after crossing the Imulnod River in Brooke’s Point. Her husband was rescued, but her body was found and recovered in Barangay Pangobilian, also in the said town,” Ablaña said.
Unable to provide the name of the husband, he added that another companion of the Arpenios had related that the housewife was swept by strong river currents brought about by heavy rains.
“We were never short of always reminding residents not to cross rivers or seas when there is a typhoon. Unfortunately and just when ‘Urduja’ was about to exit, something like this happens,” he added.
Ablaña said more than a hundred families were preemptively evacuated Tuesday afternoon from low-lying areas of Narra town due to expected moderate to heavy rains over the southern part of the province.
“We’ve prepositioned relief goods there earlier for distribution to families that might be affected. So, the Narra evacuees are continuously being helped,” he said.
In Puerto Princesa, classes have returned to normal since Tuesday despite the light to moderate rains. Tours to the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR), however, remained cancelled. (PNA)
