After arriving in Manila on the evening of January 16th, a Japanese coordinator from AMDA Headquarters had a meeting with AMDA Philippines members to discuss relief activities in the City of Santo Tomas, Batangas Province which has been severely affected by the ashes from Taal Volcano.
In the meeting, it was decided that AMDA’s joint relief team will be based in Santo Tomas North Central School, a local evacuation center, to organize medical assistance and aid distribution. For the latter effort, AMDA will be focusing on distributing relief supplies except food items, because it was learned that foodstuffs had already been fulfilled.
As far as health-related matters are concerned, it is feared that the volcanic ashes could trigger respiratory diseases among local residents.
Santo Tomas is located near an evacuation-order zone. For this reason, people who fled the heavily-afflicted area have been seeking shelter in Santo Tomas’s 11 evacuation centers. The number of the evacuees is reported to be 2,251 families (7,930 people), of which 296 families (1,183 people) have been staying at Santo Tomas North Central School (as of January 16th).
According to the press release issued on the 17th, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Managements Council (NDRRMC) said a total of 17, 555 families (77,438 people) in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna Provinces have been affected by the disaster, of which a total of 15,047 families (66,262 people) have been seeking shelter in 283 evacuation centers.
(Do stay tuned for more updates.)