1,576 messages inundated ABS-CBN mobile phone Saturday night

HUNGRY, shivering, and stranded for hours atop their houses roofs as Ondoy dumped record-breaking rains in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, Filipinos and their families turned to media hotlines for  immediate help, as relief and disaster agencies scrambled on their operations with limited logistics.

ABS-CBN, through its cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and even social networking sites, responded to a floodgate of distress calls and pleas for rescue operations. Many of the callers or text senders were stranded themselves or knew someone who were hoping to be rescued from the floods.

“Please send rescue for estimated 40 people stranded at the rooftop of Old # 12, New # 16 Melbourne Street, Provident Village, Marikina,” said one e-mail received through ireport@abs-cbn.com. Similar urgent requests for help clogged emails, cellphone and landline phones of the media network.

Some 1,576 messages inundated non-stop the ABS-CBN cell phone Saturday night. Before midnight, missed calls were at about 700. Within hours, another 400 calls failed to make it.

The ones that got through all told the same story of distress: rescue operations for themselves or for their loved ones. Callers sought help through the media believing it would call the immediate attention of  escue and relief officials.

As e-mails or phone calls failed, friends and family members resorted to leaving information in social networking sites like Multiply or Facebook, or passed text messages until it reached ABS-CBN or relief officials.

These e-mails and calls were forwarded to the National Disaster Coordinating Council and other relief agencies.

Informed on the big volume of requests for help, Lt. Col. Edgardo Arevalo, Philippine Navy information office director, appealed that people recognize limitations imposed by the weather and traffic on rescue work. He assured the government is doing its best to get to the distressed areas.

By Sunday noon, the NDCC said at least 52 people have died, many of them from Rizal province. Dozens have remained missing.

Dead and homeless

Weather officials say that Ondoy, as of Sunday, is already out of the Philippine area of responsibility. The typhoon  left a trail of death and thousands homeless.

The NDCC said 279,763 people have lost their homes and livelihood in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, and Camarines Sur.

There is no official estimate of cost to property yet brought by Ondoy’s onslaught but  television footages and photos Sunday showed that it could easily run to billions of pesos.
 
By ABS-CBN’s own monitoring, Marikina and Rizal constituted half of the calls for help. Nearing 50 of about 100 calls taken Saturday night were for rescue requests in the areas of Cainta, San Mateo and Montalban in Rizal, and in Tumana and Malanday in Marikina.

The calls from assistance also came from as far as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Through e-mails, overseas Filipino workers interceded with ABS-CBN in behalf of their distressed loved ones.

Abu-Dhabi based Luisito Cajes, for instance, wrote to seek help for his three children stranded with 20 others at the rooftop of a grocery store in Marulas, Valenzuela.

Glenn Pacure from Qatar appealed in behalf of his family in Michael Raymond street, Marieta Romeo Village, Sta. Lucia, Pasig.

Thess Salvacion, writing from Dubai, said she has tried to call the NDCC about her sister in Palm Drive, Vista Verde Country Homes, Cainta, Rizal. - abs-cbnNEWS.com