Typhoon Lando destroys 3k houses in Casiguran, Aurora

As the skies began to become clear three days after Typhoon Lando made landfall there, sights of blown-off roofs of houses and buildings, patches of flooded areas, toppled electric posts, and landslide-hit road sections dominated Casiguran town in Aurora late Tuesday.

A report on "Unang Balita" on Wednesday quoted local authorities as saying some 3,000 houses were destroyed as Lando stayed almost stationary for hours over the place last Sunday.

Until Tuesday evening, the report said, some areas in the town were still flooded and some road sections were rendered narrow by soil and rocks from landslides.

Toppled electric posts and felled trees lumbered across some road sections, blocking the way of residents fleeing their homes as they headed for evacuation centers amid downpour and strong winds, the report added.

Also, it said the typhoon blew off the roofs of some establishments, including a hospital and schools in the town.

Local authorities on Tuesday said distribution of relief goods and clearing of roads of debris are ongoing.

Earlier, GMA News' Oscar Oida reported that some of the residents were inside their homes when their houses gave way to Lando's strong winds.

Meanwhile, the Town of Calumpit in Bulacan province in Central Luzon, was declared in state of calamity due to floods spawned by Lando, which has weakened into a tropical depression early Wednesday.

Eleven of the 17 barangays of the town were still flooded on Tuesday evening.

Even though Lando had stopped dumping torrential rain over Central Luzon, floodwaters continue to plague the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Bulacan.

A report on GMA-7's "24 Oras" on Tuesday said that many residents in Nueva Ecija's Cabanatuan City were having a hard time cleaning up the mud left over from the floodwaters because clean water was unavailable. Many of them resorted to using water from the river. — LBG, GMA News