NAGA CITY, Philippines – Authorities on Wednesday, November 13, found the remains of 18-year old Cassie Poyaoan, who had been the remaining missing person in Naga City since the onslaught of Severe Tropical Storm Kristine.
The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) confirmed on Wednesday that after three weeks of search operations, their search and retrieval team found Poyaoan’s body under a debris of mud and bamboo in a creek at the back of Camella Homes at around 2:40 pm.
In an interview with Rappler, CDRRMO chief Ernesto Elcamel explained that the search was delayed as floodwaters took time to recede.
“The water just subsided. We used to go back and forth in this part, the water was still deep,” Elcamel said in the regional language.
He also mentioned that the tasking of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for All Soul’s Day and Typhoon Nika affected the resumption of the search.
Poyaoan became the 17th death due to Severe Tropical Storm Kristine in Naga City. She was with her three relatives when their stranded car at the side of the Del Rosario bridge was swept away by the unprecedented flash flood on October 22.
Severe Tropical Storm Kristine, described by the Naga City Planning and Development Office as the worst in the last 100 years, inundated 30 percent of the land area and affected 70 percent of its population. – Rappler.com
Angelee Kaye Abelinde, a campus journalist from Naga City, is a second-year Journalism student of Bicol University and the current copy editor of The Bicol Universitarian. She is also an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2024.