Typhoon Frank Advisory

Situational Report
As of June 23, 2008, 2:08 PM

Typhoon Frank (International name: Fengshen), which started last Thursday night, June 19, 2008 brought heavy and continuous downpour packed with very strong winds over most of the Visayas and Mindanao regions. After bringing devastations in the provinces of Eastern and Western Visayas, Bicol, and some areas in Central Visayas, Typhoon Frank changed its direction and moved northwestward passing East of Metro Manila early Sunday morning and crossed Central Luzon exiting through Baguio and the Ilocos Region.

As of 11 am today, June 23, 2008, Typhoon Frank has slightly weakened for the past six hours while over the South China Sea . Its location now is 300 kms Northwest of Dagupan City with maximum sustained winds of 110 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 140 kph and is moving 15kph. It is forecasted to be 420 kms Northwest of Laoag City Wednesday morning: 500 kms West Northwest of Basco, Batanes.

Public Storm Warning Signal elsewhere now lowered. Severe Tropical Storm "FRANK" will continue to enhance the Southwest Monsoon and bring rains over the Western sections of Luzon and Visayas.

Areas Affected:

Dioceses in Panay Island

Typhoon Frank covered almost the entire country and caused severe flooding in all areas that it passed through. Among the heavily affected is the Archdiocese of Jaro, which until now encounters difficulty in finalizing the disaster figures due to the inaccessibility of many areas. According to the news, 108 barangays out of 138 in Jaro City have been flooded while four municipalities, Pototan, Zarraga, Barotac Nuevo and Dumangas are submerged in 6 ft. floodwaters.

The Social Action Director, Msgr. Meliton Oso, is more concerned now about the immediate provision of basic needs of the still increasing number of families that are staying now in the Cathedral of Jaro.

The Diocese of Antique was also devastated. There are 208 barangays that were submerged by flood, affecting 13,418 families (36,238 persons). Meanwhile, there are 21,857 affected families (100,517 persons) distributed among 455 barangays in the Archdiocese of Capiz.

Archdiocese of Cotabato

A total of 10,368 families were affected (70,336 persons) in the Archdiocese of Cotabato when T. Frank passed through the area. It brought great destructions in some municipalities and parishes particularly the low-lying areas. Flashflood and landslides damaged their houses, properties, as well as corn and rice fields.

NASSA is still gathering data from the Social Action Centers directly working with the areas affected by Typhoon Frank. Another Social Action Center which signified need for assistance is the Prelature of Infanta, which will submit reports anytime today. Coordination will also be conducted with the Archdiocese of Zamboanga, and Dioceses of Bacolod, Kalibo and Zambales for further updates.

NASSA response

The Archdiocese of Capiz and Diocese of Antique will each receive 100 bags of rice from NASSA.

A joint assessment team composed of representatives from the Catholic Relief Services and NASSA will leave early morning of June 24, 2008 for the Archdiocese of Cotabato. The team will assist the Archdiocesan Social Action Center in coming up with a comprehensive needs assessment of areas severely affected by flooding. As soon as the team finishes their assessment in Cotabato, they will immediately proceed to the Diocese of Marbel for the same purpose.

CRS has initially committed an amount of Twenty-five Thousand Dollars (US$25,000) to sustain the immediate needs of victims in the abovementioned areas. The Social Action Centers, on the other hand are still gathering information for further updates.

For the meantime, all areas mentioned will be NASSA's priority areas for its relief intervention.

An appeal to NASSA's Caritas country members and Social Action Network will also be launched to augment its resources thus furthering its reach.