CABANATUAN CITY—Governor Czarina Umali on Monday sought the declaration of Nueva Ecija under state of calamity after Typhoon “Karen” destroyed over P1 billion in agriculture.
Umali, who heads the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, lamented that the devastation brought by “Karen” affected the government’s effort to increase rice production.
Abraham Pascua, PDRRMC spokesperson, said that on top of the P1-billion damage in rice crops were P87.7-million worth of vegetables and high value crops.
The engineering districts, Pascua said, have yet to finalize reports on damage to infrastructure.
But the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council estimated the cost of damage to agriculture at P2.14 billion.
Data from the RDRRMC showed that agricultural losses covered damage to palay and high-value crops in the region’s five out of seven provinces, namely Aurora, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac.
The palay sector incurred the biggest damage with an initial report of P2,141,252,435.58.
Damage to high-value crops was initially pegged at P149,700.
The RDRRMC also reported that the agricultural losses, in particular the palay sector in Tarlac was the hit hardest due to floods brought by Typhoon “Karen” with an initial estimated damage at P1.047 billion.
This was followed by Nueva Ecija with an estimated damage to palay at P1.036 billion.
In Aurora where Typhoon “Karen” made a landfall Sunday, the estimated damage to palay and high-value crops were P38.9 million and P149,700, respectively.
Damage to palay sector in Bulacan, on the other hand, reached to P11.36 million.
Pampanga’s palay sector were also affected by the floods with some P4.34-million estimated loss.
The RDRRMC said that figures of damage in terms of agriculture are still partial as reports from other flood-affected areas in the region have yet to come.
Meanwhile, a total of 3,864 houses were damaged by Typhoon “Karen” wherein 491 were totally and 3,369 were partially damaged in Aurora while four houses were partially destroyed in Tarlac.