The availability of relief supply is not the problem, the President says. It’s access to hard-hit areas we should worry about.
QUEZON, Philippines – The rain poured continuously for days. Waters from the rice fields rose and spilled on Maharlika Highway in Lopez town – a crucial link for those going to the parts of Quezon and into Bicol.
The flood paralyzed locals. Relief supplies could not get through.
As Severe Tropical Storm Kristine continued to bring rain on Thursday, October 24, people waited on the highway with no guarantee that they could pass. The flood started to accumulate on Wednesday night, residents said.
A group of men chipped in cash to give away bowls of porridge for the stranded. Some local women by the side of the road sold instant coffee and bread with peanut butter. Men in fatigues camped under a tent. Every now and then a military truck passed by carrying passengers.
Elsewhere, people attempt to get to Calauag (the Quezon town going southeast after Lopez) through the narrow, winding roads inside the mountainous terrain of Quezon — only to turn around because of slippery gravel roads, a dangerous spillway, or thick, deep mud.
In the first situation briefing on what appeared to be President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s biggest calamity yet, he admitted feeling helpless. He said there was nothing to do except to wait out the rain.
It was a candid statement made in front of his Cabinet and thousands of Filipinos watching online. But the desperation rang true that Thursday.
Along Maharlika Highway, there was really nothing to do but wait out the unrelenting rain.
An observer
In spite of the rain and flood, there were lots of coffee and hot meals to go around.
Jasmin Gualdada, 50, set up a table near where the floodwaters start. They sold bread, instant coffee, noodles, and cigarettes.
From her seat she could see the passing vehicles, the people that come and go.
A family of four passed by, and she heard them talk about taking a detour to get to Calauag. Some military men took shelter in her stall. They were tired, they told her. Their combat shoes were soaking, they told her.
An L300 was parked across her. Its passengers tried to get through the flood, she said, but water seeped into the vehicle.
On normal days the highway is lined by rice fields. Now these fields could not be seen. These are inundated.
“They may still harvest,” said Gualdada in Filipino, referring to rice farmers in Lopez, “but their harvest would be meager.”
Farmers from Lopez are among the more than 2,000 farmers across the country that the Department of Agriculture counted to have been affected. Damage and losses to rice alone amounted to at least P79 million as of October 24.
Relief supply is not the problem
On Friday morning, the skies cleared. A customer asked Gualdada if she had cold, soft drinks. She had none.
Several trucks carrying relief supplies and passenger buses were getting through.
Authorities installed a blue pipe on a wooden post of a flooded house near the highway. The pipe had markings to measure the level of flood. A quick look that morning showed that the water had subsided and was now less than three feet. Still impassable for lighter vehicles.
Back in Manila, Marcos convened concerned officials inside Kalayaan Hall in Malacañang. As of Friday, more than 2 million people were affected by the storm. There were more than 300 areas flooded. So far, reports said, 13 people died.
Teleconferencing from Naga, Mayor Nelson Legacion lamented the state of access to their city.
“In our view, Mr. President, until highways in Milaor can be crossed and until aid from Metro Manila and the national government arrive, we will continue to have a hard time,” said Legacion in Filipino.
Naga remains inaccessible by land travel. And even if vehicles pass through Maharlika Highway, they would have to contend with other flooded areas. According to Legacion, around 30% of their city had been flooded.
Now that the rain stopped, people would need immediate relief to tide them over. Currently, supplies are getting in via aircraft. Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said C-130s were being used to bring water and other supplies to Naga.
“The problem is not the availability of relief goods and the responders,” said Marcos on Friday, “but it’s the accessibility to the areas.”
Just last week before Kristine hit the Philippines, Marcos opened Asia-Pacific’s disaster risk reduction conference the country was hosting.
In its closing ceremony, a theater singer bedecked in a sparkly, red gown, sung a song about a million dreams for a future world. The audience was enraptured.
The atmosphere then was optimistic.
A few days later, Kristine caused flooding that would terribly sever access to hard-hit areas. It’s a sobering reminder of the work ahead of a presidency that projects the image of resiliency and climate-forwardness.
The road to recovery remains long and winding. – Rappler.com
