Residents in the town of Casiguran in northern Aurora province on Wednesday (October 21) began rebuilding their homes and clearing debris from the roads after Typhoon “Lando” tore through the area.
Typhoon “Lando”, now downgraded into a tropical depression from a category 4 typhoon, left a trail of destruction in the northeastern Philippines, destroying houses and crops, killing at least 26 people and displacing thousands on Sunday (October 18), the national disaster agency said.
Andres Subang, a 73-year-old resident whose house was heavily damaged by Koppu’s powerful winds, described his family’s ordeal.
“We took shelter underneath the table. We were wet but we stayed there until morning when the winds died down. We had no food and no rice to cook,” he said.
Municipal Social Development Officer Nida Coralde said more than 5,000 people in Casiguran Town were affected by the typhoon and were being provided relief assistance by the local government.
“Our disaster relief operations are ongoing and based on our study, we clearly saw a lot of damaged houses,” she said.
The national disaster agency pegged the damaged to agriculture at 6 billion pesos ($133 million) and infrastructure at 560 million pesos ($12 million).
More than 900,000 people were affected by the impact of the typhoon, while more than 113,000 residents were still staying at evacuation centres in the central and northern Philippines, the national disaster agency said.
An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year.