UPDATES ON SITUATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 14/10-09
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62 towns in the nation's rice granary still flooded (10/13/2009 | 09:30 PM )
Three days after Typhoon Pepeng exited Philippine territory, vast areas in central Luzon remain flooded, with the nation's leading palay-producing province, Nueva Ecija, suffering from the most widespread flooding. Arayat town in Pampanga province - without the media attention directed at other towns - is enduring the deepest floodwaters, up to seven feet.
Data culled by GMA News Research from the Regional Office of Civil Defense for Central Luzon showed that as of Tuesday 23 out of Nueva Ecija's 32 towns, or nearly 72 percent, are still dealing with floods, although the waters are less than a foot deep or not as bad as those in adjacent towns of nearby provinces.
In 2008, Nueva Ecija topped the nation in rice production with 1,372,378 metric tons, more than 300,000 metric tons more than second leading producer Isabela. Nueva Ecija also led the nation in onion production.
A close study of the map shows that the provinces of Tarlac, Pampanga, and Bulacan still have a total of 11 towns that are submerged in at least two feet of water.
These include the towns of Arayat, Bacolor, Masantol, San Luis, Macabebe and Sto. Tomas in Pampanga; La Paz, Paniqui, Moncada and San Manuel in Tarlac province; and Calumpit in Bulacan province.
Tarlac is the country's seventh leading rice producer with over a half million metric tons in 2008.
In Pampanga, Arayat town suffered the worst flooding, with five of its barangays (villages) submerged in six to seven-foot deep floodwaters. This was followed by Bacolor and Masantol towns.
In Bulacan, Calumpit town was flooded by at least four feet, while in Tarlac, La Paz town remained submerged in at least three feet.
Meanwhile, floods in the following areas (orange) have already receded:
Palayan City, Nueva Ecija;
Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija;
Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija;
Licab, Nueva Ecija;
Sta. Ana, Pampanga; and
Guagua, Pampanga.
» DPWH sees full repair of roads to Baguio in 1 month
» Flooding in Albay province prompts evacuations
» NDCC: ‘Pepeng’ death toll now 375, damage breaches P8B mark ____________________________
BBC World Service Text TV: Tsunami Drill across Indian Ocean:
18 countries in the Indian Ocean region are taking part in an exercise to evaluate the response of the region's tsunami early warning systems. The test will simulate the earthquake that struck off the northwest coast of Sumatra 2004 when 250,000 people were killed - more than half of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The drill is taking place today on
the World Disaster Reduction Day. ZDF Text TV also mentioned this drill taking place on the
"Welttag zur Katastrophenbekämpfung".
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According to information given by UN, 2,3 mio. people died in the past 3 decades from 1975 to 2008. 8,000 earthquakes, storms, floodings, landslides and fires caused enormous human suffering and vast devastations. In particular people in the poor countries are struck by these disasters.
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