‘Igme’ death toll hits 31

The death toll from Typhoon Igme’s rampage throughout the country rose to 31 yesterday while 12 other people were still missing and feared dead, rescuers said.

Most of the victims drowned or were involved in accidents such as falling trees following widespread flooding in northern Luzon, while four others drowned in flooding in Mindanao.

Twelve other people remained missing three days after Igme (international codename Mindulle) struck on Tuesday and are presumed to have died, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) at Camp Aguinaldo said.

Twenty-two people were injured while the weather destroyed or damaged nearly 14,000 houses and displaced some 385,000 people.

The Army has been mobilized to rescue families marooned by floods in Northern Luzon, the OCD said.

Relief and disaster operations were in full motion yesterday because of improved weather condition in the north, said Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita, chairman of the National Disaster Coordination Council (NDCC).

Cagayan Valley accounted for the most number of fatalities with 11 people killed, followed by the Cordillera Autonomous Region with 10, Ilocos Region, six; and Central Mindanao with four.

President Arroyo was in Cagayan Valley Friday to personally oversee relief and rehabilitation operations in the area.

Ermita placed Igme’s destruction to agriculture and infrastructure projects at P1.098 billion in Northern Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

These damages came in the form of destroyed crops, livestocks, fisheries, roads and bridges in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, La Union, Cagayan, Isabela, Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mt. Province.

As of yesterday, the NDCC reported that most of the 113,004 affected families in Ilocos, Cagayan region and in Central Mindanao have begun returning to their homes as weather got better.

Ermita reported that P1.8 million in relief goods, food, water and medicines have so far been been distributed by national and local disaster officials to affected families.

Igme struck the extreme northern Philippines with gusts of up to 190 kilometers per hour, but it later diminished into a storm as it brushed past southern Taiwan. — AFP, Jaime Laude