By Xinhua,
Manila : The death toll from tropical storm “Halong” reached 13 in the Philippines till Tuesday morning as it has left the archipelago, the country’s national disaster relief agency said Tuesday.
In a report released on Tuesday morning, the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said landslides and floods caused by “Halong”, which at Monday noon entered the West Pacific from the Philippines, have left 13 people dead and 13 others injured, with another two children still missing.
NDCC said most victims were killed by drowning, electrocution or being hit by fallen objects.
The two missing kids are aged respectively three and four, according to the report.
“Halong”, locally known as “Cosme”, landed in Panganisan Province of northern Philippines on Saturday, bringing heavy rainfalls to the Luzon island.
Some 79,377 families or 416,697 persons have been displaced after the tropical storm destroyed 6,111 house and damaged 12,151 others, NDCC said.
Of the displaced population, 235 families or 1,300 persons remained in evacuation centers.
The country suffered a loss of 180.94 million pesos (4.23 million U.S. dollars) from the tropical storm, mostly in infrastructure and agricultural crops, the agency said.
“Halong” has left the country and entered the West Pacific by Monday afternoon.
The Philippines is bracing for a typhoon-intensive year as around 20 tropical cyclones are expected to hit the archipelago in the rainy season, the national weather bureau has warned.
About 14 to 16 of this year’s tropical cyclones will grow into typhoon intensity, with the most of which coming to the Philippines from July to September, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said in a report released late April.
In 2006, the previous typhoon intensive year for the Philippines, more than 1,200 people were killed and incurred economic loss amounted to 19.98 billion pesos (478 million U.S. dollars), PAGASA data showed.