The Department of Social Welfare and Development  (DSWD) sent today some 13,600 family food packs to Ilocos Norte, which was heavily battered by Typhoon Ineng.

Two Philippine Navy Ships, BRP Batac carrying 7,212 family food packs, and BRP Ivatan loaded with 6,388 packs, left  Sangley Point in Cavite City at around 6:00 am today  for Currimao,  Ilocos Norte, to deliver the goods.

These are apart from the food packs initially prepositioned to the different local government units (LGUs) of Ilocos Norte.  To date, DSWD has already  provided P447,527 worth of relief assistance to the province.

As of 5am today, around 115,506 food packs have already been prepositioned to the various LGUs in Regions I, II, and  the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)  where ‘Ineng’ dumped  heavy rains and caused land slides.

Of these,  close to 20,000 packs have been distributed by LGUs to affected families.  DSWD disaster teams continue to assist LGUs in disaster relief operations.

As of press time, a total of  55, 216 families or  232, 692 persons have been affected.   A  total of 217 families or 819 persons continue to stay in 14 evacuation centers  managed by LGUs.

In Region I,  Ilocos Norte still has 11 evacuation centers and one in Ilocos Sur. All evacuation centers in Region II have been closed. In CAR, Benguet still has two evacuation centers.

A total of 2,405 houses have been damaged of which  122 and 2,283 were totally and partially damaged, respectively.

DSWD teams are conducting rapid assessment to determine the extent of the disaster and to identify  interventions that may been implemented to help the affected families return to their normal functioning. ###