Power, water, telco services down in Cebu after ‘Odette’
By Cherry Ann T. Lim
TYPHOON Odette (Rai) knocked out power, water and telecommunication services in large parts of Cebu when it slammed into the province on Thursday night, Dec. 16, 2021.
As of 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, power was still out in many parts of Metro Cebu, and the Visayan Electric Co., which serves 1.73 million people in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay, Naga and the towns of Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanilla and San Fernando, could not yet give an estimate on when it could restore power in its franchise area.
“Much as we would like to energize our franchise area right away, the magnitude of the damage caused by the typhoon prevents us from doing so. We will conduct line clearing operations first before restoring power,” it said on its Facebook page.
The company said it could also not immediately attend to customers’ concerns since its team members were also victims of the typhoon and ensuring the safety of their respective families.
As of 2 p.m. Friday, the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) said its supply coming from its bulk water supplier Cebu Manila Water Development (CMWD) in Carmen town was “gradually increasing.”
MCWD cited the areas affected as Compostela, Liloan and Consolacion towns; Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities; and these areas in Cebu City: M.J. Cuenco Ave., Lower Mabolo, North Reclamation Area, Pier Area; Barangays Carreta, Lorega San Miguel, Tejero, T. Padilla and Tinago; and Part of Imus.
On Thursday, hours ahead of Typhoon Odette’s arrival in Cebu, MCWD said its pumps had stopped operating in its entire franchise area due to the wide power service interruptions of the Visayan Electric Co. and Mactan Electric Co. Inc.
It said its water supply from Carmen had also been stopped because the water had turned murky.
Telecommunication services firm Globe Telecom said Odette’s strong winds and rains had affected its data and mobile services in the Visayas and Mindanao, with outages caused by multiple fiber cuts and the lack of commercial power.
Globe said as of 6 p.m. Friday, the affected provinces were Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Samar, Iloilo, Eastern Samar, Western Samar, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Guimaras, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Camiguin and Palawan.
At 11 a.m. Friday, Smart Communications also warned subscribers in Mindanao to expect disruption in mobile data and voice services due to “multiple fiber cable breaks” caused by Typhoon Odette. / CTL
