Palawan appeals for help as island province struggles in Odette's wake

A resort owner on Friday appealed for faster action in areas hit by Typhoon Odette as people in Palawan, one of the country's top island destinations, struggled to return to normalcy.

Ino Habana, who maintains a resort in San Vicente, narrated the ordeal they went through at the height of the typhoon that brought the island province to its knees.

"I've never seen any kind of wind that strong in my life before. It's the kind of wind if you walk towards it, that will push you back really hard," he told ANC.

"To show you how hard the winds were, we had a ref that [was] full of ice and goods and the wind just blew this ref over... not just one ref, but 2 refs of that kind."

• Palawan residents struggle to contact relatives amid downed communication lines

Habana said most if not all residential areas in the island province have been damaged with trees falling over them.

"In terms of critical infrastructure like where I live, the roof has been totally ripped off and all of the other houses, most of the houses here are built with light materials like nipa and bamboo those got crushed by the wind that strong... almost 100% of the houses have been damaged, of varying degrees of damage," he said.

Even people in evacuation centers were not safe during the onslaught.

"Some of them are staying in the evacuation centers... but when the wind hit, the evacuation centers were damaged," he said.

• Typhoon-devastated Palawan seeks aid

Habana hopes that power will be restored soon as it is critical to bring back water supply. Gasoline is also lacking.

"The town lacked severely in drinking water because the power has not yet been restored to all the water filtering stations, [they] are still not working. Water is a big need. There's also a huge need for food and gas. Gas is limited since the days of the typhoon and when the typhoon hit very little supply of gasoline has been coming in," said Habana.

"The situation is improving but we hope that it would improve faster than the phase that it's currently going at right now."

Habana hopes that help will continue to pour in for the people of the island as a lot are still needed for them to recover.

Aside from basic necessities, he appealed for construction materials needed to repair their homes.

"We still need a lot of canned goods, a lot drinking water... moving forward for the long-term items, we will be needing construction materials. We will be needing GI sheets for the roof, we will be needing umbrella nails. If there are no GI sheets we'll do with tarpaulins, we'll do with tacks because people will need to patch up their roofs. We'll also need a lot of solar lights and solar batteries also because electricity is out," he said.

• Typhoon Odette makes 9th landfall over Palawan

"Eventually we'll be also needing SIM cards because there [is] no communication going in and out of Palawan."

"All of these can be coordinated through the various LGUs of Palawan. But if you want to donate to private entities, you can follow Odette Palawan Relief on Instagram."

Habana also hopes tourists will still fly in once services in Palawan return to normal to help in its recovery.

"I like to shoutout and appeal to the people in Manila, if you guys have to travel local," he said. "The local tourism industry needs you."

RELATED VIDEO

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv