{"id":139916,"date":"2017-12-18T02:41:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T07:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=139916"},"modified":"2017-12-18T02:41:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T07:41:32","slug":"urduja-leaves-at-least-27-dead-in-biliran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/18\/urduja-leaves-at-least-27-dead-in-biliran\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Urduja’ leaves at least 27 dead in Biliran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Initial<\/a>
Initial reports on Sunday showed that 16 of the fatalities were from Caibiran, a municipality surrounded by rivers. (Photo<\/a>: Bileco Biliran\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TACLOBAN CITY \u2014<\/strong>Tropical Storm Urduja left at least 27 people while 24 others were reported missing due to landslides and flooding in several areas in Biliran province.<\/p>\n

Initial reports on Sunday showed that 16 of the fatalities were from Caibiran, a municipality surrounded by rivers.<\/p>\n

Lolita Rosel, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (MDRRM) officer, said the fatalities perished after landslide debris buried nine houses in Cabibihan village Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Seven bodies were already recovered and identified during the retrieval operations, Rosel said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

The fatalities were identified as Ronald Espa\u00f1ol, 27; his common-law-wife Jessebel Mandaue, 25; their children James Ron, 4; and Judy Ann, 2.<\/p>\n

Also killed were their neighbors Mylene Bendicion, 33; Manuel Lambunao, 5; and Merlan Sancap, 37.<\/p>\n

Retrieval operations are ongoing to recover the bodies of other victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe local government unit will no longer allow about 30 families to return to their old homes located in a landslide-prone community,\u201d Rosel told the Philippine News Agency.<\/p>\n

Affected residents will temporarily stay in an evacuation center in Cabibihan village while waiting for their transfer to permanent shelter to be built by the National Housing Authority.<\/p>\n

In Almeria town, four were killed when massive landslide buried houses in Iyusan village. The fatalities were Jimmy Jorge, 2; Winnie, 55; Wilma, 12; and Maribeth, 50, all surnamed Garbo.<\/p>\n

In Naval town, MDRRM officer Raoul Villordon confirmed that six people died in a landslide and 21 others still missing in Locsoon village.<\/p>\n

The town of Biliran also reported one death, three missing persons, and eight injured due to widespread flooding.<\/p>\n

The massive floods brought about by the tropical storm destroyed bridges, isolating several towns.<\/p>\n

The national highway from Biliran town to the provincial capital of Naval rendered impassable after the collapse of Caraycaray Bridge.<\/p>\n

The Department of Public Works and Highways estimated the infrastructure damage at PHP200 million in Biliran after Urduja\u2019s powerful winds and heavy rains ravaged one of the country\u2019s smallest province.<\/p>\n

The typhoon also destroyed two elementary schools in Naval town with an estimated damage of PHP30 million as reported by the Department of Education.\u00a0(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy by Biliran Electric Cooperative<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TACLOBAN CITY \u2014Tropical Storm Urduja left at least 27 people while 24 others were reported missing due to landslides and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":139977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[12447,39375],"class_list":["post-139916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-biliran","tag-tropical-storm-urduja","mauthors-roel-amazona","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}