By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Hundreds of Negrenses will likely spend the New Year in evacuation centers, almost three weeks after the onslaught of super typhoon “Odette” in Negros Occidental.
Records of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office show that Candoni has the most number of evacuees with 300 families still staying at the evacuation centers, followed by Ilog town with 205, Sipalay City with 181, La Castellana with 84, Kabankalan City with 34, and Sagay City with 28
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said the typhoon caused the destruction of 3,764 houses, damage to 16,477 other houses, and still unquantified devastation of agricultural crops and livestock in the province.
As of December 20, Typhoon “Odette” left almost P6 billion worth of damages to property, agriculture, and livelihood in the province.
The bulk of the figure came from agriculture accounting for P4,445,050,801 worth of losses; followed by animal and livestock with P488,780,000; food and nutrition with P327,768,300; and infrastructure with P201 million.
Losses of schools were pegged at P268,331,200; damaged houses at P212,780,000; and destroyed houses at P13,635,000.
Damage to seaports, meanwhile, were estimated at P12 million while costs to health were placed at P13,602,000./DGB, WDJ