AP, BENGUET :
Typhoon Haima, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines in three years, killed at least 12 people and inundated vast tracts of rice and corn fields, officials in Manila said on Friday, before it took aim at Hong Kong.
Philippine authorities said they were assessing the extent of damage to infrastructure and crops, but confirmed that thousands of hectares of farmland were destroyed in northern provinces. Eight of the victims were from the Cordillera region, said Ricardo Jalad, chief of the
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, citing reports the agency received from provincial officials. In Cagayan alone, where the super typhoon made landfall late on Wednesday with destructive 225 kmph winds and heavy rain, between 50,000-60,000 hectares of rice fields were flattened and flooded, said the provincial governor Manuel Mamba.
Typhoon Haima, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines in three years, killed at least 12 people and inundated vast tracts of rice and corn fields, officials in Manila said on Friday, before it took aim at Hong Kong.
Philippine authorities said they were assessing the extent of damage to infrastructure and crops, but confirmed that thousands of hectares of farmland were destroyed in northern provinces. Eight of the victims were from the Cordillera region, said Ricardo Jalad, chief of the
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, citing reports the agency received from provincial officials. In Cagayan alone, where the super typhoon made landfall late on Wednesday with destructive 225 kmph winds and heavy rain, between 50,000-60,000 hectares of rice fields were flattened and flooded, said the provincial governor Manuel Mamba.
