MANILA, Philippines – (UDPATED) The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has started providing relief assistance to families affected by storm Maring (international name: Doksuri) as of Tuesday night, September 12.
The DSWD said they have allocated a total amount of P577,772,340.94 as standby funds for those affected by the heavy rains and flooding.
Based on the data provided by the department’s Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC), at least 2,103 families or 8,794 persons were affected in 109 barangays in the regions of Central Luzon, Metro Manila and the Calabarzon.
Some 1,857 families or 7,549 persons are currently staying in 116 evacuation centers, most of which are in the provinces of Laguna and Quezon.
DSWD also prepositioned a least 18,000 food packs in Laguna and Quezon, including surrounding island municipalities.
On Tuesday, the Quick Response Team of the department's field office in Central Luzon also delivered 500 family food packs for stockpile of the Deputy Program for Executive Office in Nueva Ecija.
"We ask everyone to stay dry, safe and alert regarding Tropical Depression Maring, which is expected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) tonight or early tomorrow morning. We advise the public to get regular weather bulletin updates from the PAGASA and other official government websites or social media accounts," Abella added.
The weather system hit the country as a tropical depression on Tuesday. As of Wednesday morning, September 13, the storm has moved away from Luzon and is now a tropical storm over the South China Sea.
Davao incident
The department also responded to the flooding incident in Talomo-A District, Davao which displaced at least 17 families or 85 persons on Tuesday morning, September 13.
According to DSWD, at least 8 houses were totally damaged by the flood while 3 were partially damaged.
The heavy rains in Davao City caused rivers to swell to critical levels at around 11:30 pm on Monday, prompting village officials in affected areas to issue a forced evacuation alert.
DSWD is continuously coordinating with the DSWD field office in the region for significant reports on the status of relief efforts and assistance needed by those displaced by the flooding. – Rappler.com