Official: 6 weeks to restore power to typhoon zone

Philippine Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla says it may take six weeks before the first typhoon-hit towns get their electric power back.

Speaking at Cebu airport Wednesday night, Petilla said many transmission lines had been toppled and power plants damaged from Typhoon Haiyan.

Petilla said that in the hard-hit coastal city of Tacloban, order needed to be restored “because if there’s no peace and order, it’s hard to reinstall the power posts.”

He said army troops had fired shots Wednesday to drive away a group of armed men who approached a power transmission sub-station in Leyte province. The unidentified men fired back then fled. Nobody was hurt.