Unicef readies $200K worth of essential supplies for NLuzon

Although typhoon ‘Ramil’ (international name ‘Lupit’) has kept weather forecasters guessing if it would hit or spare the country on Wednesday, Unicef has already pre-positioned $200,000 worth of supplies to northern Luzon in preparation for a possible landfall of the tropical cyclone. According to the Unicef (United Nations Children's Fund), the supplies consist of emergency health kits for typhoon-affected areas. “We know that many of the evacuation centers are running low on supplies, and many families exhausted their reserves after Typhoon Pepeng," Vanessa Tobin, Unicef country representative said. Included in the supplies are essential drugs for adults and children, buckets and water purification tablets for 8,000 families and kits containing blankets, sleeping mats, water jugs and cooking pots for families in evacuation centers. The supplies would be delivered to San Fernando City, La Union; La Trinidad, Benguet; Tuguegarao City, Cagayan; and Rosales, Pangasinan through the help of the government’s Social Welfare and Health departments. “By positioning them in key locations, we can ensure we can help those most in need quickly," Tobin added. Since the twin tropical cyclones ‘Ondoy’ and ‘Pepeng’ devastated the country, Unicef has given $2 million in supplies and program activities, covering the key areas of health, water and sanitation, education and child protection. The Unicef is also currently appealing for $12 million to ensure that they could continue to help those rendered homeless and jobless by the past tropical cyclones. Earlier, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Ramil may slow down, even as the chances of its changing course and heading for Taiwan had gotten bigger. For the past week, army troops and disaster-relief officials have ferried tons of canned food and clothes and moved rubber boats and helicopters along the coast and inland mountains devastated by mudslides in the earlier storms. Selective evacuations from danger zones — low-lying areas, cliffs and mountain slopes — had begun, he said, while the coast guard grounded vessels after the weather bureau warned of an 8-foot (2.4-meter) wave surge along the beaches of northeastern Cagayan and Isabela provinces. Schools in the provinces were closed. Ramil was spinning toward the northern Philippines with winds of 175 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 210 kph. It had been projected to make landfall in Cagayan on Thursday, but slowed down and may hit shore by Friday "or change course slightly and head for Taiwan," said the head of the weather bureau, Prisco Nilo. The storm is more powerful than storm “Ondoy" (Ketsana), which unleashed heavy downpour and the worst flooding in 40 years around Metro Manila on Sept. 26, killing 420 people, and the subsequent typhoon “Pepeng" (Parma), which left 438 dead. The homes of 7 million people were flooded and thousands remain in evacuation centers as the massive cleanup and rebuilding had only started. In Benguet province, where dozens of landslides buried houses with entire families, village heads were using megaphones to warn about the impending typhoon, and sirens will be sounded once it makes landfall, said Loreto Espineli, the provincial police chief. "The frequent storms are making it very difficult for relief agencies to help rebuild. Another storm, or any calamity, would be sure to set back their recovery," said Filomena Portales, a spokeswoman for relief agency World Vision. The threat of landslides forced the agency to suspend a relief distribution in Benguet and instead focus on helping at least 4,000 families in Pangasinan province, northwest of Manila, she said. - GMANews.TV, with an - AP report