OCD: More than 90k individuals preemptively evacuated in areas affected by Odette

More than 90,000 persons were moved to evacuation centers to prepare for the impact of Typhoon Odette, the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) said Thursday.

In an online press briefing, Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) chief of 24/7 Operations Center Joe-Mar Perez reported that 26,430 individuals or 98,091 families in Region 7, Region 8, Region 10, and Caraga were already preemptively evacuated as Odette (international name: Rai) is expected to hit these areas.

Here is the breakdown of the total evacuated families:

• Region 7 - 2,336 persons or 867 families
• Region 8 -  17,165 persons or 4,615 families
• Region 10 - 300 persons or 60 families
• Caraga - 78,290 persons or 20,888 families

Asked if there will be forced evacuation, Perez said there is no report yet on forced evacuation as they already instructed regional offices to conduct preemptive evacuation in their communities.

"Walang report sa measures na aabot sa forced evacuation. Nakatulong 'yung early instructions natin sa mga regions natin. (There is no report yet of forced evacuation. Our instructions to our regional offices helped)," Perez pointed out.

Likewise, he said they expect more families or individuals to undergo preemptive evacuation as Odette will also make landfall in other regions in the following days.

"May ilang regions nagko-commence na so ineexpect namin na tataas 'yung number of preemptive evacuation reports," he said.

(Some regions have commenced preemptive evacuation so we expect these numbers to go up.)

As of December 16, Perez said the available standby funds for relief is at P933,436,640.

Meanwhile, the OCD also reported that 3,855 passengers, 1,616 rolling cargoes, and  29 vessels were stranded.

Further, 288 cities and 180 municipalities already announced class and work suspension as Odette intensifies further.

In a 2 p.m. weather bulletin, PAGASA said Odette already made landfall over Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands. Odette also made a second landfall in the vicinity of Cagdianao, Dinagat Islands Thursday afternoon.—AOL, GMA News