Super Typhoon Karding (international name: Noru), the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, left a trail of destruction as it plowed through the primarily agricultural provinces of Central Luzon region on Sunday until early Monday. The first confirmed casualties of the storm were five rescuers.
Eli Alberto, 70, a resident of Barangay Aluyon in Burdeos town in the Quezon province, also perished when he was buried by a landslide in the hamlet on Sunday at around 7:30 p.m., according to Mayor Freddie Aman.
According to Mayor Roderick Tiongson, the rescuers were from the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO). They perished while carrying out rescue operations in San Miguel town, where 40 of the 49 villages were submerged in floodwaters due to the typhoon’s strong rains.
Emergency personnel Troy Justin Agustin, 30, Jerson Resurreccion, 33, Marby Bartolome, 37, Narciso Calayag, 33, and George Agustin, 45, were sent to assist four homes engulfed in floodwaters on Sunday afternoon. Still, they were struck by a falling wall, which caused them to appear to drown, according to police.
Electrification might have killed the power lines before strong currents pulled them down to the deeper reaches of the river, according to Bulacan Governor Daniel Fernando, who claimed that the collapsed barrier dragged power lines into the floodwaters.
Super typhoon Karding leaves 6 people dead
The Bulacan PDRRMO team left to rescue families before early on Monday, and a live video clip that was posted online just before their deployment to San Miguel showed them to be happy and energetic.
However, the five lost touch with their PDRRMO colleagues some hours later. At 6 a.m., their bodies were eventually discovered drifting in San Miguel’s canals.
The five towns of Polillo, Burdeos, Panukulan, Jomalig, and Patnanungan in Quezon’s Polillo Group of Islands were among the hardest affected by super typhoon Karding.
Erberto Astrera, the town’s disaster response officer, claims that a community in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in Quezon’s General Nakar town suffered from super typhoon Karding’s wrath.
“The damage in the village is more than 85 to 90 percent. The roof of its elementary school was almost wiped out. Many houses were damaged because of the strong winds,” Astrera said.
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