I must have gone over this bridge linking the towns of Tanjay and Bais thousands of times in my years growing up in the Philippines. The national highway that snakes around the perimeter of the island of Negros is the ONLY artery that links the towns and cities, almost all of them on the coast of this mountainous island. Losing a bridge (and losing any section of this road due to heavy rains or landslides) means losing the hospitals in the capital city of Dumaguete, people are unable to go to work, foods and essential supplies cannot be delivered. In a word, everythign grinds to a HALT!
When I was there in July, whole sections of this national highway were under renovation; steady but painstakingly slow progress due to the lack of proper equipment (forget electrical tools... miles of steel bars have to be sectioned off with hand hack saws, for example). Now, all that valuable work is all for naught.
Here's a YouTube video of this particular bridge as posted by a kababayan (fellow countryman):
One more video of a road being washed out:
Many thanks to the posters who raise awareness of the damages from this typhoon.
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