Old woman buried in Baguio landslide

BAGUIO, Philippines – A 72-year-old woman was buried in a landslide that swept her house during stormy weather as typhoon “Karen" slammed into the northernmost tip of Luzon Island early morning Wednesday, officials said. Alex Uy, operations chief of the Office of Civil Defense-Cordillera said Petra Kadatar, was sipping her freshly-brewed coffee in her house at Purok 7 in Pinsao village at around 3:30 a.m. (Wednesday dawn) when boulders and loosened soil crashed into her house. Officials said Kadatar was the first reported casualty of typhoon “Karen," which swept in the northernmost part of Luzon Island on Wednesday morning. As in other places in the Cordillera mountain ranges and other parts of Luzon, classes in he highland city of Baguio were suspended on Wednesday due to stormy weather. Public works employees were still clearing the highway along Kennon Road, specifically in Klondykes in Camp 3, Tuba town after boulders rolled down the highway Wednesday dawn, while other government road workers cleared a huge landslide road connecting Baguio to La Trinidad in Benguet. Workers were also on their toes monitoring landslides in other road grids in the Cordillera region especially the very important vegetable belt road grid (Baguio-Bontoc Road, otherwise known as Halsema Highway) where highland vegetables are transported from the farms toward the La Trinidad trading post in Benguet. - GMANews.TV