Mayor Kimi immediately went into action, seeking relief for her constituents in Sison who were affected by typhoon Cosme. As a result, P400 million in Aid is Released for Pangasinan. Click on the link to read the full story on the Sison website.
Scant news is coming out of Sagunto because, as of last report; there is still no electricity in Sagunto and surrounding areas after typhoon Cosme stormed through on May 17, 2008. The provinces of La Union, Pangasinan and Zambales were the worst hit and those areas have been declared to be in a state of calamity.
Here are images, found on YouTube of some of the damage in Dagupan City.
Sagunto is lucky to not be counted in the number of places that sustained fatalities. Everyone, all of our loved ones and families, are safe though a little battered. Sagunto did sustain quite a bit of damage, one of which was Barangay Captain Esteban’s House, as previously posted. According to “Gudeng” who left an update via our virtual abong (chat), 215 families in Sagunto were affected by the typhoon. 30 houses were badly damaged and numerous animals (goats and chicken) were killed during the storm. The Pilawan School which was the recent site of the medical and dental mission by the SFAL group from the U.K. was not spared by Halong either.
While we have an awesome mayor in madame Kimi, she is only one person and has all of Sison to look after. I am positive she has already started rebuilding the damage done to her growing town. She will not let the progress to Sison that is underway be hampered by this calamity. The national government has already allocated aid for the affected provinces, but I am sure that you also realize how slow this process is going to take and it may be some time before Sagunto sees any of that aid.
Sagunto is lucky in one way because, as has been already discussed on the ‘abong’, many of the families there have relatives abroad who can help them. There are still a few in our bario who do not have this resource though. Perhaps you can keep them in mind when sending aid to your families. Maybe you can add a little extra for those who have no one else to help them.
If you have other ideas of how we can help our kailyans, please leave your comments here. Existing organizations, if you already have relief efforts underway, please let the rest of us know how we can help.
