Death toll from landslides and floods climbs to 85

The death toll from landslides and devastating floods in the central Philippines triggered by a tropical depression climbed to 85, officials said yesterday, and 20 people were missing as rescuers slowly reached cut-off communities.
The casualties, including young children, were mostly killed when their homes collapsed in landslides after days of heavy rain in several provinces in the central Philippines, said Ricardo Jalad, executive director of the national disaster agency.
“If we don’t recover the missing or we recover them dead, that is 105 deaths, which we hope not,” Jalad said.
The tropical depression, which weakened into a low pressure system before leaving the Philippines on Sunday, brought heavy rain that triggered landslides and flooding in the Bicol and eastern Visayas regions.
Officials put three provinces under a “state of calamity” to give them access to emergency funds.
Bicol, with a population of 5.8mn, was the hardest hit, with 68 killed in intense rains and landslides. Damage to agriculture in Bicol, which produces rice and corn, was estimated at 342mn pesos ($6.5mn). Rescuers, including the police and military, used heavy-lifting equipment to clear roads leading to landslide sites and entered flooded communities using rubber boats.
“The sun is already out, with occasional light rains. We hope floods will subside,” Ronna Monzon, a member of the operations personnel at the disaster agency in Bicol, told Reuters.
About 20 tropical cyclones hit the Philippines every year, with destroyed crops and infrastructure taking a toll on human lives and weighing down one of the fastest growing economies in Asia.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said production losses and damage to agriculture-related infrastructure due to the tropical depression ‘Usman’ increased to P431.21mn.
Latest report from the Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Operation Center (DA-DRRMOC) said the rise was largely due to high production losses recorded at 9,396 metric tonnes (MT) of damaged crops in 26,226 hectares of agricultural areas.
Affected were rice, corn, livestock and fisheries in the provinces of Albay, Camarines Norte, Catanduanes and Sorsogon, it said. An estimated 17,629 farmers and fisherfolks in Quezon, Oriental Mindoro, Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, Sorsogon and Samar were affected by ‘Usman.’
According to the DA, the increase was attributed mainly to higher rice production losses now pegged at P366.07mn or 6,525 MT, affecting 13,127 farmers.
Losses from corn production likewise increased to P23mn or 286 MT. The areas affected were 4,255 hectares and 2,779 corn farmers in Albay, Camarines Sur, Masbate and Sorsogon.
For high value crops, the DA said some P39.32mn worth of fruit trees, assorted vegetables and root crops were damaged, with 2,585 MT volume production loss.
The total affected area was 529 hectares and 1,693 farmers in the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, Masbate, and Sorsogon.
Damage to livestock was pegged at P2.01mn. For fisheries, damage and losses amounted to P807,500, affecting 72 fisherfolk in the province of Camarines Norte.
The DA-DRRMOC said damage and losses in irrigation facilities have yet to be determined.