AT LEAST 21 people were reported dead as a result of the powerful typhoon “Quiel,” reports from the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council said yesterday.

The Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council said that at least 18 people in the province died either of drowning, electrocution or after being crushed by falling trees. Two others were reported missing in Obando municipality while many suffered injuries after stepping on sharp debris while wading in almost neck-deep floodwaters.

An NDRRMC report filed at 6 a.m. yesterday said three were killed, two were injured and six were missing in the aftermath of “Quiel.”

The dead were identified as Marcos Jammas, a 35-year-old resident of Barangay Cotcot in Buguias, Benguet who was trapped in a landslide and Kurt Jack Candelario, 4, and Protacio Gelacion, 38, who both drowned in Bgy. Bonbon and Bgy. Telmang respectively in Camiling, Tarlac.

The missing were identified as Dante del Fero, Eddie de la Cruz, Joseph Caasi and one “Cards,” all crewmen of the MB Dante which sunk in Bolinao, Pangasinan; and King Raimel Candelario, 6; and Benjie Benedicto, 36, both residents of Bgy. Bonbon in Camiling.

NDRRMC head Benito Ramos said “Quiel” affected a total of 35,677 families composed of nearly 160,000 persons in Luzon.

In Ilocos-Pangasinan region, the NDRRMC said there were 7,200 people living in 47 barangays in 13 municipalities and three cities in La Union and Pangasinan who were displaced by the typhoon.

In Cagayan Valley, a total of 98,000 persons living in 23 towns and one city in Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Viscaya and Qurino provinces.

In Central Luzon, 54,000 residents of 81 barangays in four towns in Tarlac were affected by floodwaters.

The NDRRMC added that a total of  732 houses in Cagayan Valley and Cordillera region were damaged by floodwaters.

Aid rushed

Authorities rushed aid to thousands of people marooned in their flooded homes for nearly a week after deadly typhoons, but said the worst appeared over with waters receding.

The subsiding water yesterday allowed relief workers to deliver food, medicine and dry clothes to families who had waited out the floods on their roofs and upper floors of their homes while being hit with back-to-back typhoons.

"We have no food to eat, and no clean drinking water," construction worker Orly Nabong told AFP as he joined hundreds of victims lining up for relief items on higher ground in Calumpit, one of the worst-hit towns.

"The water is slowly going down so we think we can wait it out, but we need supplies."

Nabong, 52, said adult members of his extended family remained on the second floor of their home, including his siblings, although the children had already been taken to an evacuation center.

Calumpit, two hours' drive north of Manila, is part of Bulacan province, a flat farming region that was particularly hard hit by the heavy rains of typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel.”

“Quiel” pummelled Luzon on Saturday, hitting many of the same areas that “Pedring” had torn through five days earlier.

Fifty-eight people have so far died in the two storms, and 28 remain missing, according to the civil defense office in Manila.

Another 360,000 people are either in evacuation centers or stranded in the flooded areas and in need of relief, the office said.

The Philippines endures about 20 major storms annually, but officials said “Pedring” and “Quiel” were among the most powerful this year with their massive rain bands covering most of Luzon.

At the height of Pedring's fury last week, authorities also released waters from dams which had reached critical levels, adding to the flooding.                           With AFP