The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year rose to 23 on Friday, as rescue workers rushed to clear landslides and send food and medicine to isolated areas, disaster officials said.
Thousands of people were displaced by typhoon Mindulle, which packed winds of 120 mph and gusts of up to 140 mph as it swept past the northern region of the main Luzon island.
Crop and infrastructure damage was estimated at $9.8 million, mostly in rice- and corn-growing areas in Cagayan Valley region.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo boarded a Navy rubber boat on Friday to distribute relief goods to nearly 200,000 residents in Cagayan province, which bore the brunt of the storm.
“I want immediate measures to restore agricultural capacity,” Arroyo said.
She said she has asked Vice President Noli de Castro to visit and assess personally the typhoon damages in the tobacco-growing Ilocos region in another part of northern Luzon.
Neri Amparo of the Civil Defense Office said the number of dead could rise as reports come in from isolated areas, cut off by a power outage and rising flood waters.
Amparo said 23 people had died, most of them swept by swollen river. Nineteen people were missing and 22 were injured by felled trees, collapsed houses and debris brought by swirling winds.
She said most roads in the north remained closed to traffic because of flood and landslides. A bridge in the mountain region was also washed out by swollen river, cutting off wide areas in the north.
“We’re still waiting for updates,” Amparo told Reuters. “There are delays in transmission of reports because many areas are still submerged.”
Soldiers and civilian rescue workers are rushing to clear landslides and help deliver food, medicines and relief goods to isolated areas.
Mindulle began dumping rain on Tuesday, causing heavy flooding in Luzon but it weakened on Thursday as it headed northwest of Taiwan.
The storm drenched Taiwan’s south and east, flooding streets and disrupting domestic air and sea traffic.
Meteorologists said the storm was the strongest to hit the Philippines this year. “This is the first time we raised typhoon signal 4 because of strong winds and heavy rains,” said Nonoy About, a weather forecaster.
The Philippines is hit by 17 to 20 typhoons each year. The most destructive in recent times was Thelma, which struck Leyte island in November 1991 and unleashed massive floods in Ormoc City that drowned about 5,000 people.
