The Cebu City government is ready to offer help to areas that were ravaged by typhoon Ruby over the weekend, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said yesterday.
Rama said they will prioritize Cebu City’s mountain barangays before extending assistance to northern Cebu, Samar and Leyte.
“I’ll wait for a recommendation from the Department of Social Welfare and Services and the city disaster risk reduction council on how we can help the other areas just like what we did during Yolanda,” he said.
Aside from personnel and equipment, Rama said they can allocate cash assistance but they will have to assess how much they can afford to donate.
The Cebu City government allocated P12 million as financial assistance to local government units in northern Cebu and eastern Visayas amounting to P100,000, P500,000 or P1 million per town depending on the damage they incurred.
Deployed
Dave Tumulak, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CCDRRMC) chief, said a 50-person team is ready to be deployed to help other areas.
“As agreed during a meeting with disaster risk reduction management officers from other provinces and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), we will be sending assistance in terms of clearing operations and lending heavy equipment. I’m just waiting for their calls,” Tumulak said.
He said if there are other areas that also need assistance, the city can also form a second 50-man team.
Tumulak said each team will have nurses, ambulances, tree cutters, heavy equipment, communication technicians and personnel to help affected areas.
He said only minor landslides were recorded in the city’s upland barangays but all roads were already passable yesterday. No one was hurt.
Improvement
Though the city was more prepared with Typhoon Ruby than typhoon Yolanda, Tumulak said they still experienced some glitches.
“We need better cooperation and training on the barangays. Some barangays were not so serious yet especially in terms of evacuation. We also need to improve our communication,” he said.
Tumulak said some barangays also didn’t give a list of 100 numbers to the command center for text blasts and updates which could have been disseminated to other people. But Tumulak commended the schools and teachers who were on hand over the weekend to help in the evacuation centers.
Rama said the city government employees were also active in helping with the preparations. “But there is still room for improvement,” he added.
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