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Glenda death toll now at 40, damage to crops at P2.3B


The death toll from Typhoon Glenda (Rammasun) has risen to 40 as of Thursday afternoon, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has said.
 
This developed as Department of Agriculture estimated the loss of crops at more than P2.3 billion, with the Bicol region accounting for more than P600 million of damage.

The NDRRMC reported that damage to agriculture included damage to rice, corn and high-value cash crops and livestock in Central Luzon, Mimaropa and Bicol.
 
A report on GMA News "24 Oras" said Quezon sustained the most damage, even as Albay, Cavite and Laguna were also placed under a state of calamity.

The NDRRMC's figures indicated that more than 26,000 houses were damaged by the typhoon, the report added.
 
The agency's initial estimates showed the damage to infrastructure at P49 million in the provinces of Bataan and Nueva Ecija.  
 
The figure is likely to increase as reports from other areas affected by Glenda come in.
 
In its 4 p.m. update, the NDRRMC also said four persons remain missing while 17 were injured in the wake of Glenda, which exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility Thursday morning.
 
Also, the NDRRMC said Glenda has affected 167,293 families or 882,326 people, with 99,548 families or 525,791 people staying in evacuation centers.



Meanwhile the authorities expressed frustration amid signs many of those who died had ignored government warnings about the dangers posed by the typhoon, one of 20 forecast to hit the Asian archipelago this year.
 
"We still have to find out what exactly are the reasons a lot of our countrymen refuse to heed the warnings," National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council chief Alexander Pama told reporters.
 
As part of a "zero casualty" effort, the government evacuated nearly 400,000 people from the path of Rammasun and warned others to stay indoors.
 
But most of the people who died were outdoors, killed by falling trees, collapsing buildings and flying debris, according to the council's data.
 
Pama said the death toll could rise further, with mobile phone and other forms of communication still cut to some rural areas. He said at least eight people remained missing.
 
The latest two people reported to have died were a woman whose shanty home was blown away, while a man earlier reported as missing had been found dead, Pama's department said.
 
Rammasun, a Thai word for "Thunder God", swept in off the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday night, bringing wind gusts of up to 160 kilometres (100 miles) an hour across land to Manila and other heavily populated northern regions.
 
The Philippines is often the first major landmass to be struck after storms build above the warm Pacific waters.
 
"It really scrambled whole towns, blowing down houses and toppling power lines," the chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, Richard Gordon, told AFP.
 
The typhoon destroyed or damaged 26,000 homes, while cutting electricity supplies to nearly all of Manila, a megacity of more than 12 million people, and surrounding urban areas.
 
The stock exchange and government offices re-opened on Thursday, a day after being shut down by high winds, but many schools remained closed partly because of the power problems. —reports from Joel Locsin and Agence France-Presse/NB, GMA News
 
 
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