TACLOBAN CITY- An evacuation center is soon to rise in the area where bunkhouses were hastily constructed to provide temporary shelters for survivors of supertyphoon “Yolanda” this city.
A two-story evacuation center will be constructed in Barangay 91, Abucay district with the Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD) funding the project at a cost of P10 million.
The project, which had its ground-breaking last Thursday(July 21) is expected to be finished in 120 days, barring any unforeseen events, said Grace Sudario, social marketing officer for risk reduction management of the DWSD-8, said.
Sudario said that constuction of an evacuation center in Tacloban was delayed due to lack of location.
The village, more than 4 kilometers away from the city center, was spared from the storm surges that caused the massive destruction of properties and loss of more than 2,200 lives in the city.
About 172 families were temporarily resettled by the government at the bunkhouses in Brgy.91 after Yolanda pummeled this city on November 8, 2013.
All the families, who were residents of coastal barangays along Sagkahan district, were transferred to their permanent homes at Ridge View in Brgy. Cabalawan last April of this year.
Mayor Cristina Romualdez said that she appreciates the assistance of the DSWD in constructing an evacuation center in Tacloban, ground zero of the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland.
”As of now, we really lack evacuation centers. So, we’re trying to get more donors. So right now, our coding scheme for evacuation centers, we have to use churches and schools,” Romualdez said.
Aside from churches, schools and barangay halls, the city’s astrodome is considered to be its main evacuation center. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
