InterGen Provides Assistance to Storm Victims in the Philippines

During the months of November and December, the Philippines were devastatingly struck by three tropical storms and a typhoon within a two-week period. According to reports, the number of dead and missing is nearly 1,800. The vast majority of the casualties were caused when Tropical Storm “Winnie” set off flashfloods, landslides and flooding on November 29, 2004, affecting the northeastern coastal towns of Real, Infanta and General Nakar, on Luzon Island, within the Quezon Province, where InterGen’s Quezon power plant has been operating since 2000.

In some areas, entire villages and bridges were completely swept away. Close to 4 million Filipinos have been affected in some way by these destructive storms. With disease a major worry, relief efforts have been focused on providing food, clean water, medicine and shelter to those most in need via helicopter, boat and on foot. It is expected that it will take months to restore power, clear roads and rebuild bridges in the worst hit areas.

Building upon its long-standing history of providing support for and participating in community development initiatives, Quezon Power Ltd. (QPL) donated Php 2 million to the disaster relief fund. The project also dedicated its property, jetty port, tugboats , time and employees to helping in the relief efforts.

As the Quezon plant is located on Luzon Island, central to many area relief activities, its location played a vital role in the relief support operations for the victims of the typhoons. QPL’s jetty port has beenused as a key staging point for the transportation of supplies to the essentially decimated towns of Infanta and Real.

Not only is the QPL facility a vital staging point for the relief efforts, a group of volunteer employees from Quezon Power Ltd. traveled on the plant’s tugboat to Infanta, which is north of the plant, to deliver blankets, bed-sheets, medicines, fuel and food supplies. That same tugboat was also used to rescue 45 people aboard a sinking motorboat off Cagbalete Island and to deliver the people to the plant site where they were safely brought aboard a navy vessel.