MMDA sending added rescue teams to Yolanda-hit areas, eyes adopt-a-town scheme

As it mobilized additional rescue teams to areas hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority is eyeing a scheme where its 17 local government units will adopt a town affected by the cyclone.

 

The MMDA said on its Twitter account the 17 mayors of its component cities and town agreed to each send a 10-member rescue team to Yolanda-ravaged places.

 

"The 17 mayors of the National Capital Region (NCR) agreed that each city will send a 10-man rescue team in the typhoon-ravaged places in Leyte and Samar and also approved the proposed 'Adopt a City/Town' program," it said, quoting chairman Francis Tolentino.

 

Yolanda ravaged parts of Visayas and Southern Luzon when it blew by the Philippines last week.

 

As of Wednesday evening, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the death toll had risen to more than 2,000.

 

Meanwhile, the MMDA said two more teams of rescuers had been formed to help rescue efforts in Basey and Guiuan in Samar province.

 

Tolentino said these would be the sixth and seventh teams, which he said are composed of trained rescuers. 

 

"These additional teams will concentrate on the towns of Guiuan in Eastern Samar and Basey, which also suffered extensive damage during the onslaught of Yolanda," he said.

 

On the other hand, the MMDA said its additional teams had also brought added tools and equipment as well as generator sets to Eastern Samar, which is still without power.

 

The MMDA said this brought to 275 the number of its personnel now deployed to Leyte and Eastern Samar.  — ELR, GMA News