‘Urduja’ kills 4 in Mindanao
Four people were confirmed dead while 13 others were injured when tropical depression “Urduja” battered several provinces in Mindanao, disaster officials said Saturday.
A report from the National Disaster and Coordinating Council (NDCC) identified the fatalities as Roynaldo Zorobrado, Dionisio Quiloman, 62; one-year-old Isnaje Rallos and Jenebeb Sajesah Rallos, a four-month- old girl.
The report stated that three of the fatalities died due to landslides in Jasaan town and Gingoog City in Misamis Oriental while the other one, Zorobrado, died of electrocution in Dumanjug town in Cebu.
A total of 13 people were also confirmed injured. Three of them sustained injuries when their houses were buried in a landslide while the 10 others were passengers of a vehicle that fell into a cliff due to a landslide in Claver, Surigao del Norte.
“A total of 82,324 families or 404,623 persons were affected in 93 barangays, four cities and 23 municipalities in the provinces of Camiguin, Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental in Northern Mindanao and Agusan del Norte and Dinagat Island in Caraga Region,” the NDCC report said.
“At the height of Tropical Depression ‘Urduja,’ 3,293 persons, 110 vehicles and 99 vessels were stranded in various ports in Southern Tagalog, Bicol Region, Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao,” it added.
Officials said seven houses were totally destroyed in Agusan del Norte while 58 others were partially damaged in the same province.
The damage to infrastructure and agriculture was pegged at P588,000, all of them in Agusan del Norte.
Among those still impassable as of Friday night due to flooding were the national highway in Gawad Kalinga area in Claver, Surigao del Norte; Manoligao Provincial Road at Sitio Manlangit in Carmen, Agusan del Norte and Tupsan Bridge in Camiguin Province; and the national highway in Mambajao, Camiguin.
“Urduja” developed into tropical depression on Monday and pounded some parts of Mindanao with heavy rains. On Thursday, it weakened into a low pressure and later dissipated.
The onslaught of “Urduja” came while the country is still recovering from the wrath of tropical storm “Ondoy” in Metro Manila and nearby provinces and typhoon “Pepeng” in Northern Luzon which killed more than 1,000 people and caused multi-billion-peso damage in agriculture, infrastructure and private properties.



