By Xinhua,
Manila : The death toll from tropical storm “Halong” reached 44 in the Philippines till Thursday morning as it has left the archipelago, the country’s national disaster relief agency said.
The damage to property has risen to more than 3.743 billion pesos (87 million U.S. dollars), mostly in infrastructure and agricultural crops, the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said in a report posted on its website.
At least 205,165 families or 1,107,875 persons were affected in1,176 villages in 61 towns and seven cities in five provinces in the north part of the archipelagos.
Some 26,318 houses were totally destroyed while 61,090 were reported partial damages.
“Halong”, locally known as “Cosme”, landed in Panganisan Province of northern Philippines on Saturday last week, bringing heavy rainfalls to the Luzon island.
“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.