Manila
When deadly Typhoon Vamco struck the Philippines in November, an army soldier in a remote northern part of Luzon Island risked it all to save lives with an improvised rescue raft. Vamco made its first landfall in the Philippines in the late evening of Nov. 11. It was so powerful that all of Luzon was placed under a state of emergency.
Cagayan province in the northeastern tip of the island, although not directly hit, was devastated. Floodwaters engulfed the province, turning it into what officials described as a murky “ocean.” Army Second Lt. Allan Kenneth Punzalan, a civil-military operations officer of the 77th Infantry Battalion stationed in Cagayan, was dispatched to Tulayan Norte, one of the worst-affected neighborhoods of Tuguegarao City.
“When we arrived in the area about 7:00 in the morning of Nov. 13, we saw that the village was already under water,” Punzalan told Arab News. Homes and businesses were destroyed, and power lines and communications towers cut off, turning the city into a ghost town.
“From the main (road) you could still walk about 30 to 50 meters to enter the village, but beyond that you already had to swim.”—Agencies
