The Nation­al Dis­as­ter Risk Reduc­tion and Man­age­ment Coun­cil (NDRRMC) reports on the com­pre­hen­sive response to Typhoon Kop­pu (local­ly Lan­do), with its dam­ag­ing winds and heavy rain.
The dis­as­ter response caused by the cat­e­go­ry-four typhoon was led by Pres­i­dent Benig­no S. Aquino III, who presided over the NDRRMC meet­ing on the pre-dis­as­ter prepa­ra­tions last Friday.
The Nation­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion coor­di­nat­ed with Philip­pine Ama­teur Radio Asso­ci­a­tion (PARA) to mon­i­tor affect­ed areas through their local Ama­teur Radio associations.
the Philip­pine Ama­teur Radio Asso­ci­a­tion (PARA) has acti­vat­ed its HERO (Ham Emer­gency Radio Oper­a­tions) Net­work DX1PAR is mon­i­tor­ing 7.095 MHz.
Joho DU1VHY said the HERO Net­work has been set up at the request of the Nation­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Com­mis­sion’s Deputy Commissioner.
PARA through its HERO Net­work have han­dled many reports from the east­ern seaboard of Luzon — the main Philip­pines island where the typhoon struck.
It was pos­si­bly the sec­ond most pow­er­ful storm to strike the coun­try this year. At least three peo­ple are dead, sev­er­al vil­lages are flood­ed, and the slow mov­ing typhoon is expect­ed to last for three days.
A per­son was killed when a part­ly built house had a wall col­lapse. A huge tree fall on anoth­er house killed anoth­er res­i­dent and injured oth­ers. Numer­ous inci­dents were report­ed both on water and land, keep­ing emer­gency ser­vices very busy.
In prepa­ra­tion of the typhoon mak­ing land­fall on Sun­day, emer­gency ser­vices and respon­ders were on alert as the mov­ing slow­ly sys­tem dumped heavy rain, caused land­slides, dis­rupt­ed pow­er, and blocked roads with fall­en trees or storm debris.
In low lying areas an esti­mat­ed 23,000 peo­ple were pre-emp­tive­ly evac­u­at­ed to high­er ground. Emer­gency food packs and med­i­cine were provided.
The response also involved the fire ser­vice, coast guard, police, army, the Red Cross, the HERO Net­work and oth­er trained vol­un­teers, har­ness­ing an enor­mous planned response effort.
— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.