THE DSWD6 released food packs for evacuees and strandees in Iloilo when Urduja hit Panay Island.

Records showed that 227 family food packs were released by the agency. Of which, 40 were used to feed stranded passengers bound for Cebu, Manila and Cagayan while 187 were dispatched for evacuees in Concepcion, Iloilo.

Each food pack costs P360 with six kilos of rice and 10 cans of sardines.

“We laud the quick response of the Local Government Units. The pre-emptive evacuations that they did really helped,” said Geamala.

Geamala called for a meeting on Monday morning, immediately after no area in Western Visayas was placed under storm signal anymore.

The DSWD, which leads the Response cluster, provides augmentation to LGUs should they need additional resources.

“The first responders are still the LGUs. And at this time, we are glad that they are very responsive including using their own resources to provide for the evacuees in their localities,” said Geamala.

The DSWD  has placed its Quick Response Team on alert last week.

Pre-positioned food packs were ensured in the different provinces so that anytime, the LGUs could access them should need arises.

The agency’s Logistics committee also conducted a separate meeting to ensure enough stockpile of relief packs for any eventuality.

“We assure that we have enough stockpile. We have 18,000 food packs ready for dispatch,” said Geamala.

All personnel of DSWD were also ordered to assist the LGUs in conducting disaster operations.

As of this writing, evacuation centers in Aklan and Capiz were reported closed and the people are back to their houses./dswd6/May Rago-Castillo