The death toll from Tropical Storm “Usman” rose to 68 with the number of fatalities expected to climb even higher, civil defense officials said Monday.
Fifty-seven people died in the mountainous Bicol region, southeast of Manila, while 11 were killed in the central island of Samar, mostly due to landslides and drownings, the officials said.
READ: Usman barrels in, Eastern Visayas in harm’s way
“I am afraid this [death toll] will still go up because there are a lot of areas we still have to clear,” said Claudio Yucot, Bicol civil defense director.
“Usman” hit the country on Saturday. While it did not have powerful winds it brought heavy rains that caused floods and loosened the soil, triggering landslides in some areas.
READ: ‘Usman’ slows, moves westward
Many people failed to take necessary precautions because Usman was not strong enough to be rated as a typhoon under the government’s storm alert system, Yucot said.
“People were overconfident because they were on [Christmas] vacation mode and there was no tropical cyclone warning,” he said.
Although Usman has since moved westward away from the country, many affected areas were still experiencing seasonal rains, hampering rescue and recovery efforts, he added.
A spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), Edgar Posadas, said at least 19 people were still missing, and that about 30,000 families”•or about 130,000 people”•were affected by the storm and its aftermath.
He said the government has already spent P1.6 million to help affected communities.
Estimates of damage done to crops rose to P195.36 million as of 5 p.m. Sunday, the Department of Agriculture reported.
Some P177.41 million of this was on palay crops alone, with 7,352 metric tons in potential volume production loss -affecting 8,844 hectares farmland in the provinces of Quezon, Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, and Samar.
The total number of rice farmers affected was 6,318.
Damage to corn crops, on the other hand, increased to P976,267 with volume production loss of 11 MT in 563 hectares in Albay, Camarines Sur, and Masbate.
Some P16.97 million of damage was done to high-value crops, the department added, with fruit trees, assorted vegetables and root crops suffering a volume production loss of 1,132 MT in 428 hectares in Albay, Camarines Sur, Masbate, and Sorsogon. With PNA
READ: Floods, landslides kill 51