‘Ruby evacuees’ remain in shelters

Information dissemination and evacuation held in provinces affected by Typhoon ‘Ruby’ (via PNP Facebook page; photo courtesy of local police stations)

MANILA – Days after Typhoon “Ruby” (international name Hagupit) left the country, almost 800,000 people are still staying in evacuation centers, according to reports from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

As of yesterday, the council has noted some 170,000 families or a total of 788,487 people who are still stranded in the government-designated shelters.

Those at the Eastern Visayas region, who suffered most of Ruby’s fury, have close to 600,000 or up to 125,000 estimated families still at their designated evacuation centers.

There were also other evacuees recorded in the Mimaropa (Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan), with 61,457 evacuees; Bicol with 25,856 evacuees; Calabarzon with 18,586 evacuees, and a few hundreds in Central Luzon, Western Visayas and the Caraga region.

Typhoon Ruby slammed most cities in the central Philippines knocking out power lines and causing the death of several Filipinos.

Upon weather warnings from the government, most people specially those living near the seas were placed under forced evacuation to avoid repeating the same mistakes done during the Typhoon Yolanda devastation late last year.

Unlike Yolanda, Ruby brought minimal damage in the country with at least 19 persons killed and at least 916 others injured, according to the latest report of the NDDRMC.

Ruby also brought at least P3.3 billion worth of agriculture and infrastructure damages in the Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas and Eastern Visayas regions.