Divers Inspect Grounded Ro-Ro
The 93 passengers and 36 crew on a ro-ro ran aground approximately 100 meters from shore at Barangay Nasunugan in Banton, the Philippines, at midnight on July 16 have now been rescued and refloating efforts have begun.Montenegro Shipping’s Maria Helena was sailing from Lucena Port in Lucena City, Quezon Province, bound for San Agustin Port in Tablas, Romblon, when the incident occurred.The vessel has been listing 10 degrees to portside, and the Captain is reported to have attributed the list to to the explosion of one tire of one of the rolling cargoes onboard…
Typhoon Rips Philippines, Mass Evacuation Underway
A powerful typhoon roared into the eastern Philippines on Saturday, bringing lashing rain and strong winds that felled trees, ripped off tin roofs and toppled power lines in areas still bearing the scars of a super typhoon 13 months ago. About 1 million people had already fled to shelters by the time Typhoon Hagupit made landfall, in what a U.N. agency said was one of the world's biggest peacetime evacuations. As the storm barrelled in from the Pacific, power was cut across most of the central island of Samar and nearby Leyte province, including Tacloban City, considered ground zero of the devastating super typhoon Haiyan last year. "The wind is blowing so strongly, it's like it is whirling," Mabel Evardone, an official of the coastal town of Sulat in Eastern Samar, said on local radio.
Philippine Coast Guard Assists Relief Efforts in Bohol
Two Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) multi-purpose vessels in Manila were dispatched on Thursday, October 17 in the Province of Bohol to transport various relief items for the affected locals following the magnitude 7.2 killer earthquake that rocked the Central Visayas region last Tuesday. PCG vice commandant for operations Rear Admiral Luis Tuason Jr. said that buoy tender ship BRP-Corregidor (AE-891) and the 35-meter search and rescue vessel BRP-Romblon (SARV-3502) are heading to Bohol on Wednesday to deliver the more than 10,000 sacks of family food packs provided by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in cooperation with US AID and World Food Program for the families and residents affected by the said quake.
Philippine Island Ferry Carrying Students Capsizes
Two people died and six were missing after a Philippine island ferry carrying students to a summer camp capsized in turbulent waters near central Romblon Island, the coastguard said on Tuesday. Twenty-eight of the boat's passengers and crew were rescued after the vessel named Sea Gold sank on Monday night. One of those who died was a crewman of a passing South Korean-registered ship, MV Sunny Road, who hit his head against his ship's whaleboat while trying to rescue children from the sinking ferry, the coastguard said.
