Residents in Naval, Biliran are now appealing for water tropical storm Urduja displaced 18,000 families, and left 27 people trapped in the rubble, said Assistant Secretary Jonji Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas in a statement on Sunday.
Gonzales said Gerard Roger Espina, mayor of Naval, Biliran, relayed the appeal to the OPAV team that conducted aerial damage assessment with the Central Command in the area on Sunday.
Espina said that the people of Naval, Biliran were facing the risk of losing the water supply in the next three to four days.
Michael Dino, Presidential assistant for the Visayas has ordered Gonzales to coordinate with the Armed Forces of the Philippines in assessing areas hit by the tropical storm so that government agencies tasked for relief efforts would be guided according to the immediate needs of the people.
Dino quoted Espina as saying that the town’s deep wells were damaged due to severe flooding in the area.
“The people of Naval pleads for water. OPAV is calling on the Cebuanos to respond as we are the only waypoint that can bring bottled water supply to Biliran,” Gonzales said.
He said supplies from other areas in the Visayas could not reach Biliran as of the moment because the typhoon badly damaged both Ormoc and Tacloban, the only two of the strategic waypoints to Biliran.
Gonzales also appealed to search and rescue teams from Cebu to help in rescuing 27 people who remain trapped in the rubbles, and relief goods for 4,000 people (1,394 families) in the evacuation areas.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.