SUPER TYPHOON ROLLY

COVID-19 complicates evacuations, says regional civil defense exec

The fear of contracting the dreaded coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has added complications to the evacuation efforts amid Super Typhoon Rolly, a regional civil defense official said Sunday. 

"Evacuating people is more difficult at this time because of COVID-19," Bicol regional civil defense spokesman Alexis Naz told AFP.

Schools which have been empty since the start of the coronavirus pandemic are being used as emergency shelters as are government-run evacuation centers and gymnasiums.

On Saturday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council said about a million people in the Bicol Region have evacuated due to Rolly.

NDRRMC Administrator Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad said the local government of Albay has already evacuated 174,616 families, which are composed of 794,000 persons.

Calaguas Islands in Camarines Norte has evacuated 1,329 families, composed of 6,645 individuals. Camarines Sur also evacuated more than 46,100 families or almost 200,000 individuals.

Mary Ann Echague, 23, and her family fled their home in the coastal city of Legazpi to an inland primary school where they were sheltering in a classroom with several other families.

"We fear the wrath of the typhoon," said Echague, who was with her two children, parents and siblings. They had carried with them a portable stove, tinned meat, instant noodles, coffee, bread, blankets and pillows.

"Each time we're hit by a typhoon our house gets damaged, since it's made of wood and galvanized iron roofing," she said.

"We have always managed. We find a way to get by."

Hundreds of people have been left stranded after the coastguard ordered ferries and fishing boats into port in expectation of rough seas throwing up 16-meter waves.

Rolly is expected to weaken as it crosses southern Luzon and enters the South China Sea early Monday, the state forecaster said.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure, keeping millions of people perennially poor.

Its deadliest on record was Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), which unleashed giant waves on the central city of Tacloban and left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013. — Agence France-Presse/RSJ, GMA News