Seven dead after Nona lashes Oriental Mindoro

At least seven people, including two children, died when Typhoon Nona battered the province of Oriental Mindoro, a report from GMA's “24 Oras” by Ian Cruz reported on Thursday.

The Opina family lost their 2-year-old child during the storm after the walls of the granary they took shelter in collapsed.

“Anak kung nasaan ka man alam kong kasama mo na ang Panginoon, mahal ka namin,” Genyrin Opina said.

The 7-year-old child of another family also became a casualty after drowning in floodwaters.

“Nagpilit po ako na umano sa tabi. Eh ngayon po nakahawak na po ako sa [puno ng] saging, kinapa kapa ko po eh talagang wala na po,” the mother of the victim said.

The children were of the town of Pinamalayan which was among the areas most affected with 15,000 of the total 18,000 houses in the province destroyed here, according to disaster reponders.

The eye of typhoon Nona passed through Pinamalayaan for its fifth landfall on Tuesday.

There was a silver lining. The mayor of the Pola municipality said they had no casualties there.

The Oriental Mindoro Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said relief operations are continuing but their residents would need more than food and water.

“Bukod po doon after po ng distribution natin ng mga relief goods ang inaasahan nilang maging tulong ay 'yung pagpapatayo ng kanilang mga bahay, kagamitan siyempre yero, kahoy, pako at iba pang mga materials,” Oriental Mindoro PDRRMO Chief Vincent Gahol said.

Aside from the seven known fatalities, 82 were injured while one remains missing in Oriental Mindoro.

At least 24,000 families or 108,000 people are still at evacuation centers.

Damage to agriculture was pegged at P200 million.  — Andrei Medina/ELR, GMA News