TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) kicked off the government’s national disaster response operation for Tropical Storm Urduja (Kai-tak) at 5 pm, Friday, December 15.
In a memorandum, DSWD officer-in-charge Emmanuel Leyco activated the following cluster leads and member-agencies of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) “to provide emergency response and humanitarian assistance” to affected areas.
- Search, rescue, and retrieval (Armed Forces of the Philippines)
- Health (Department of Health)
- Food and non-food items (Department of Social Welfare and Development)
- Camp coordination and camp management (DSWD)
- Emergency telecommunications (Office of Civil Defense)
- Internally displaced persons’ protection (DSWD)
- Logistics (OCD)
- Law and order (Philippine National Police)
- Education (Department of Education)
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Department of Transportation (DOTr)
- Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT)
- Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)
- Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)
- National Telecommunication Commission (NTC)
- Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)
- Philippine Red Cross (PRC)
Leyco will convene NDRRMC's response cluster on Friday, 7 pm.
DSWD, which is NDRRMC's lead agency for response efforts, also announced that it had a stockpile of 368,000 family food packs worth P223 million and other non-food items.
State weather bureau Pagasa earlier warned that Eastern Visayas, particularly the Samar provinces, was still "in danger" as Tropical Storm Urduja continued to move slowly.
Due to Urduja's extremely slow movement, Pagasa said that the tropical storm’s expected landfall was either on Saturday morning or afternoon, December 16. – Rappler.com
