By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
The death toll from Typhoon Rammasun - known as Glenda in the Philippines – has risen to 38 after the storm barreled through southern Luzon.
Alexander Pama, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said that as of Thursday morning, 38 people had been killed and ten others wounded.
"This also includes eight people missing," he added.
Of the 38 fatalities, 22 were from the heavily-hit CALABARZON region, three from Central Luzon, and two each from Metro Manila – home to the capital - and Eastern Visayas.
Typhoon Rammasun – whose heavy rains lasted from Tuesday morning to Wednesday – has affected at least 192,131 families, or over 1 million individuals.
The strong winds and rains it had brought also damaged 19,257 houses, totally destroying over 7,000 others.
Pama said that over $1 million (P45 million) worth of infrastructure had been damaged, while Luzon's southernmost Bicol region reported over $15 million (P668,233,477) in losses in the agriculture sector.
As of Thursday morning, 15 roads and four bridges in different regions of the island group remained impassable.
All public storm warnings had been lowered early Thursday, but fishing boats and other small vessels were still advised not to venture out into the western seaboard of Visayas.
State weather bureau PAGASA also warned that the country could face yet another weather disturbance, with forecaster Glaiza Escullar saying that a low-pressure area – which will approach the Philippines within 24 hours - has a high chance of developing into a tropical cyclone.
"The LPA will be locally code-named ‘Henry’ once it intensifies into a cyclone," Escullar added.
As it moves over the South China Sea, the typhoon is expected to hit southern China or Vietnam.
The Philippines is visited by some 30 storms a year - many of them deadly. The Southeast Asian archipelago is often the first major landmass to be struck after storms build above the Pacific Ocean's warm waters.
In November last year, Super Typhoon Haiyan had struck the central Philippines, bringing storm surges that killed some 7,000 people.
www.aa.com.tr/en
