COMPOSTELA & NEW BATAAN|TYPHOON PABLO| DECEMBER 4, 2012

It was December 2012 when the strongest weather disturbance to hit the south of Philippines in two decades landed in Compostela Valley. Fierce winds, mudslides, and flash floods destroyed houses, uprooted trees and swept through schools and buildings where the residents took refuge. Many people in Compostela lost loved ones; many more lost their livelihoods. The painful experiences taught them an important lesson: prepare for the unexpected.
“One night we could not go anywhere because water surrounded the twelve houses left. All the other houses of our neighbors were taken by the raging water.” This is how Lynne Dollolasa remembers Typhoon Bopha. She was at that time trying to save lives as an emergency responder while trying to recover as a victim herself. ‘’We never expected to see casualties everywhere. We could hardly see any dry land, everything was mud.’’

Compostela Valley was not regularly frequented by typhoons. This was cited by survivors as the reason why evacuation was not implemented in most areas. Despite warnings and preparations by communities against the typhoon, a total of 612 people died in Compostela Valley due to Typhoon Pablo (international name, Bopha), mostly in Barangay Andap, in the municipality of New Bataan. New Bataan is a small agricultural town of mostly farmers on banana plantations, with a size of 553.15 km2 and a population of 47,470 people. After Typhoon Pablo’s onslaught, Barangay Andap in New Bataan was buried under a pile of rocks and boulders. Barangay Andap is situated on an alluvial fan at the mouth of a mountain drainage network at the base of steep slopes—a location favorable for a debris flow.

Видео COMPOSTELA & NEW BATAAN|TYPHOON PABLO| DECEMBER 4, 2012 канала FreeLearNews- Lincoln Bliss