The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) Response Cluster sent today a Rapid Deployment Team which will look into the additional augmentation assistance needed by the areas affected by Typhoon Lando in Aurora Province.
The 8-member team flew this morning via a C-130 plane.
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mel Sarmiento, and NDRRMC Executive Director Undersecretary Alexander Pama joined the group. The three executives will oversee the setting up of the humanitarian/disaster response hub in the Province by the Response Clusters team.
The team is composed of representatives from the Emergency Telecoms; Search, Rescue and Retrieval; Camp Coordination and Camp Management; Food and Non Food; Internally Displaced Persons’ Protection; Health; Education; and Logistics Clusters.
The group shall proceed to Casiguran, Aurora and shall coordinate with the designated Responsible Officer (RO) or Incident Commander (IC). It shall establish response hub which will work under the direction of the Incident Command Post of Casiguran, in coordination with the other incident commands of the other affected municipalities. Once set up, the group will stay in the area for a maximum of fifteen (15) days.
“The team will be there to augment the efforts of the local government units (LGUs). The LGUs will still be the lead in the disaster operations,” Sec. Soliman explained.
Usec. Pama, on the other hand, said that the base is just in Casiguran because the town has an airstrip enabling easier access, but the team will also provide augmentation to other towns in the province.
The province of Aurora suffered the wrath of Typhoon Lando which made a land fall in Casiguran, one of the towns affected.
As of 1 am today, a total of 4,961 families or 23,411 persons in the province have been affected by the typhoon. Some 62 evacuation centers remain open in the province serving 3,730 families or 18,066 persons. The evacuation centers are being managed by the municipal LGUs.
As of press time, DSWD has provided P941,755.20 worth of relief assistance to the provincial government.
The team also brought with them non-food items for the province as requested by the provincial government. ###
