The DSWD Field Office 1 (FO 1) Incident Management Team (IMT) met today to have a “kumustahan” session with the DSWD FO 1 staff, to discuss the challenges faced in the previous days of disaster operations, and to plan the provision of additional assistance to local government units (LGUs) that were hit by Super Typhoon Egay.

As of this writing, there are 166,762 reported affected families in Region 1. 15,570 families in La Union, 64,914 in Pangasinan, 41,719 in Ilocos Sur, and 44,559 in Ilocos Sur. Due to increasing augmentation requests from LGUs, DSWD FO 1 continues to take action to replenish and further increase the stockpile of regional and satellite warehouses.

OIC-Assistant Regional Director for Operations Anniely J. Ferrer asked the situation of the family members of DSWD FO 1 employees affected by the flooding incident in Region 1 she asked the help of the Division Leaders to make sure to look at their situation to provide for their needs if any.

Apart from disaster operations implementation plans and other directives, Regional Director Marie Angela S. Gopalan also emphasized the importance of “rest” for all the employees involved in the disaster operations ensuring that all said employees should at least have a day’s rest in a week.

Deliveries of DSWD food and non-food items (FNFIs) still continues with the help of Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council 1 member-agencies, volunteers, and LGUs resulting to 82,060 total of FNFIs released to augment the needs of the reported affected families.

The saying “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much,” just proves that in times of disaster, teamwork prevails in all branches of government. by Nicole Kasandra A. Lipawen, Information Officer II – Disaster Response Management Division