News Roundup 13 November 2020
Nov 13, 2020 • 4 min Read
1,902 new coronavirus infections bring PH COVID-19 caseload to 404,713 | INQUIRER.NET – The total number of coronavirus cases in the Philippines jumped to 404,713 after an additional 1,902 infections were logged, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Friday. The latest data from the DOH also recorded 506 new recoveries and 31 additional deaths, bringing the total to 362,902 and 7,752, respectively. Of the total number of cases, 34,058 are active cases.
Typhoon Ulysses: Like ‘Ondoy’ all over again | PHILSTAR.COM – It was like Typhoon “Ondoy” (international name: Ketsana) all over again for many in Metro Manila after torrential rains from Typhoon “Ulysses” (international name: Vamco) inundated large areas of the national capital overnight. Marikina City again was the hardest hit and the riverside Provident Village in Barangay Tañong was submerged once more in muddy water that reached the second floor of homes of the middle-class community on Thursday. Many residents climbed to the roofs of their houses to escape the rising water, parents clutching their young children, all of them wet in the rain. According to Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro, 223 people from Provident Village had been rescued as of 7 p.m. on Thursday. He earlier told the Inquirer in a phone interview that around 9,800 other people were given shelter in the city’s 49 evacuation centers. He said many people could not be accounted for by the local authorities because they had fled to the homes of relatives or friends in safer areas, or preferred to spend the night in their cars to wait for floodwaters to subside. “All the memories of Ondoy came back to us,” Teodoro said. “We know that we did all we could to prepare for this typhoon, but this is an act of nature. We should take seriously the issues relating to climate change and really include [these] in our priority programs.” The mayor admitted that his city’s resources were “overstretched” so he asked for rescue workers from the the national government.
NOAH isn’t gone but here’s what we lost when the project ended | PHILSTAR.COM – As Typhoon Ulysses (international name: Vamco) swept across Luzon with violent winds and torrential rain, submerging parts of Metro Manila and adding misery to communities trying to recover from earlier typhoons, risk prevention and mitigation program Project NOAH trended on social media. Social media users slammed the government for scrapping Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), saying this shows that disaster risk reduction is given less priority by the current administration. Some are even clamoring to bring it back. But what does the termination of Project NOAH three years ago mean for an archipelagic country exposed to a multitude of disasters such as tropical cyclones? The country lost the ability to provide “hazard specific, area focused and time bound information” during disaster events, University of the Philippines professor Mahar Lagmay, Project NOAH executive director, said. “That’s our biggest contribution because we were supplying information that that government was able to use in near real time because somebody was minding the store. I’m not saying nobody was minding the store but it takes a lot of work to generate that information. It requires a lot of people,” Lagmay said. Project NOAH, the country’s flagship disaster risk reduction management program, was created in the aftermath of Typhoon Sendong in 2011 (international name: Washi). During its formal launch in 2012, President Benigno Aquino III said the program’s real-time warnings and information would serve as the country’s ark against deluge. Project NOAH was composed of disaster mitigation and prevention component projects funded by the Department of Science and Technology. It had been instrumental in identifying areas that would be hit by hazards at particular time.
Worst floods in Metro in years | Malaya Business Insight – Like scenes from typhoon “Ondoy” 11 years ago, people yesterday pleaded to be rescued, most of them stranded for hours on the roofs of their houses as floodwaters rose rapidly overnight. Yesterday’s floods in Metro Manila and nearby provinces were triggered by typhoon “Ulysses,” the 21st cyclone to hit the country this year, and which battered areas still reeling from super typhoon “Rolly.” Ulysses also left seven persons dead in Camarines Sur, Cavite, Benguet, and Isabela provinces. Nearly three million households in and around Manila were without power as people waded through waist-high floods, carrying valuables and pets. Coast guards had to swim in flood waters as high as electricity poles, while rescue workers used rubber boats and makeshift floats to carry children and the elderly to safety. Big waves and strong winds in Manila Bay budged a tanker, damaging a bridge. Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said winds from Ulysses knocked down power lines and some 40,000 homes in the city were either fully or partially submerged. As of yesterday afternoon, rescue operations were ongoing, especially in the worst-hit Marikina City. Marcelino said the flooding was worse than brought about by Ondoy. The water level in the Marikina River reached 21.8 meters as of 9 a.m. yesterday, breaching the 21.5-meter level during Ondoy which flooded a number of regions in Luzon and the Visayas in September 2009.
