Profile of Devastation
NO CATASTROPHE in recent memory is as devastating, as thorough, as expansive and as lasting – its effects to continue to hound and haunt the victims for years to come – as the eruption of the century.
Death and Dislocation
The swath of destruction cuts through five provinces – Pampanga, Zambales, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Bataan; two highly urbanized cities – Angeles and Olongapo; 45 municipalities and 241 barangays, a number of which have been effectively erased from the map.
Going into the end of October 1991, a total of 806 people have died, 184 injured and 23 missing, and presumed dead. Of the fatalities, 281 were killed in the eruptions; 29 were swept by lahar; and a staggering 496 felled by sickness and destitution in evacuation camps. Epidemics of H-fever and measles have also struck in tent cities and beyond, to the contiguous communities.
Despite government efforts, the death toll continues. At a disturbing rate of 2.27 percent per 1,000 evacuees.
Affected families in the five provinces number 276,748. This roughly translates to 1,358,296 persons.
The mass exodus to evacuation centers was wrought initially by the heavy ashfalls, and later, by rampaging lahar and the scouring of riverbanks that caused the destruction of 41,629 houses and partial damage to 71,104 others.
Displacement of Labor; Loss of Capital
Nearing the first half of 1991, Pampanga ranked Number 1 – way ahead of Cebu – in terms of new investments, so confirmed the Department of Trade and Industry of the claim of Gov. Bren Z. Guiao of the premier spot his province held among all provinces in the country.
His gung-ho optimism – E co magmalun. Mibangun ya ing Pampanga (Do not despair. Pampanga will rise again) – notwithstanding, Guiao has long been jolted to the bitter reality of Pampanga, post-Pinatubo, sliding – and still falling fast – to the 21st rung in the spiral of investments among the provinces.
Of all the affected provinces and cities, Pampanga suffered the most in damages to exporters, manufacturers and BOI-listed firms to the tune of P267.14 million or 63 percent of the total of P426.87 million.
Pampanga’s top draw in export – furniture manufacturing centered in Angeles City, Bacolor and Guagua – felt the most telling blows with losses and damages amounting to P156.7 million.
With damage to and destruction of manufacturing firms naturally came the displacement of workers – 651,000 of them, not counting those put out of job by the abandonment of Clark Air Base by the Americans.
Desertification
The heavy ashfalls that covered 41 towns destroyed agricultural acreage and crops in an area of 86,869 hectares, put at an estimated value loss of P868.9 million. No less than 56,550 farmers were affected.
The inundation of the farmlands by lahar caused an additional P220.1 million loss to 10,543 farmers.
The once fertile rice, vegetable and sugar lands of Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales are now virtual desert wastelands that would take years before being restored to their highly productive state.
It is no different in the lahar-covered fishponds and fishing areas.
Forestry projects – 302 contract reforestation and 50 social forestry projects with an aggregate coverage of 20,332.2 hectares and valued at P125.442 million – were irretrievably lost.
Damage to Infrastructure
A staggering P3.8 billion sums up the estimated cost of destroyed and damaged infra facilities, among which are 591 roads and bridges, 659 school buildings and 381 flood control and drainage projects. The cost of reviving the heavily-silted rivers is as yet to be computed.
Of the 101 health facilities devastated, none can probably approximate the fate of the Angeles City General Hospital. Collapsed under tons of volcanic debris at Pinatubo’s initial eruption, the hospital, along with the very lot upon which it stood and crumbled, was later claimed by lahar that scoured the banks of the Abacan River.
xxxxxx
THUS IT was at the end of October 1991, four months after Mount Pinatubo erupted in a special report I was commissioned to write by an international NGO. The statistics came from factsheets from the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council, the Presidential Pinatubo Rehab Task Force, and the DTI.
This, in remembrance of the 17th year of the eruptions.
Death and Dislocation
The swath of destruction cuts through five provinces – Pampanga, Zambales, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Bataan; two highly urbanized cities – Angeles and Olongapo; 45 municipalities and 241 barangays, a number of which have been effectively erased from the map.
Going into the end of October 1991, a total of 806 people have died, 184 injured and 23 missing, and presumed dead. Of the fatalities, 281 were killed in the eruptions; 29 were swept by lahar; and a staggering 496 felled by sickness and destitution in evacuation camps. Epidemics of H-fever and measles have also struck in tent cities and beyond, to the contiguous communities.
Despite government efforts, the death toll continues. At a disturbing rate of 2.27 percent per 1,000 evacuees.
Affected families in the five provinces number 276,748. This roughly translates to 1,358,296 persons.
The mass exodus to evacuation centers was wrought initially by the heavy ashfalls, and later, by rampaging lahar and the scouring of riverbanks that caused the destruction of 41,629 houses and partial damage to 71,104 others.
Displacement of Labor; Loss of Capital
Nearing the first half of 1991, Pampanga ranked Number 1 – way ahead of Cebu – in terms of new investments, so confirmed the Department of Trade and Industry of the claim of Gov. Bren Z. Guiao of the premier spot his province held among all provinces in the country.
His gung-ho optimism – E co magmalun. Mibangun ya ing Pampanga (Do not despair. Pampanga will rise again) – notwithstanding, Guiao has long been jolted to the bitter reality of Pampanga, post-Pinatubo, sliding – and still falling fast – to the 21st rung in the spiral of investments among the provinces.
Of all the affected provinces and cities, Pampanga suffered the most in damages to exporters, manufacturers and BOI-listed firms to the tune of P267.14 million or 63 percent of the total of P426.87 million.
Pampanga’s top draw in export – furniture manufacturing centered in Angeles City, Bacolor and Guagua – felt the most telling blows with losses and damages amounting to P156.7 million.
With damage to and destruction of manufacturing firms naturally came the displacement of workers – 651,000 of them, not counting those put out of job by the abandonment of Clark Air Base by the Americans.
Desertification
The heavy ashfalls that covered 41 towns destroyed agricultural acreage and crops in an area of 86,869 hectares, put at an estimated value loss of P868.9 million. No less than 56,550 farmers were affected.
The inundation of the farmlands by lahar caused an additional P220.1 million loss to 10,543 farmers.
The once fertile rice, vegetable and sugar lands of Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales are now virtual desert wastelands that would take years before being restored to their highly productive state.
It is no different in the lahar-covered fishponds and fishing areas.
Forestry projects – 302 contract reforestation and 50 social forestry projects with an aggregate coverage of 20,332.2 hectares and valued at P125.442 million – were irretrievably lost.
Damage to Infrastructure
A staggering P3.8 billion sums up the estimated cost of destroyed and damaged infra facilities, among which are 591 roads and bridges, 659 school buildings and 381 flood control and drainage projects. The cost of reviving the heavily-silted rivers is as yet to be computed.
Of the 101 health facilities devastated, none can probably approximate the fate of the Angeles City General Hospital. Collapsed under tons of volcanic debris at Pinatubo’s initial eruption, the hospital, along with the very lot upon which it stood and crumbled, was later claimed by lahar that scoured the banks of the Abacan River.
xxxxxx
THUS IT was at the end of October 1991, four months after Mount Pinatubo erupted in a special report I was commissioned to write by an international NGO. The statistics came from factsheets from the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council, the Presidential Pinatubo Rehab Task Force, and the DTI.
This, in remembrance of the 17th year of the eruptions.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 12:03 PM
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