38 towns, 3 cities in NLuzon still paralyzed by floods

A total of 41 areas - 38 towns and three cities - in the Ilocos Region remain flooded as of Sunday night, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said Monday. In its 6 a.m. report, the NDCC said that still flooded are 23 towns and three cities in Pangasinan; nine towns in La Union; one in Ilocos Sur; and five in Ilocos Norte. The NDCC said tropical cyclone "Pepeng" (Parma), which entered the country as a typhoon and subsequently weakened into a tropical depression, affected at least 521,531 families or 2,414,108 people in 3,929 villages in 351 towns and 34 cities in 27 provinces in Luzon, Western Visayas, Cordillera, and Metro Manila. On the other hand, the death toll stayed at 199, including 53 from the Ilocos Region, 137 from Cordillera, four from Central Luzon, one from Quezon province, and four from Bicol. Around 154 were injured while 50 remained missing. The casualty figures, however, exclude those from tropical storm "Ondoy" (Ketsana). The NDCC said some 2,968 houses were destroyed while 22,857 were damaged. Damage to property was estimated at P5.083 billion, including P1.09 billion in infrastructure and P3.991 billion in agriculture. It also said that 56 road sections and nine bridges in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, and Pangasinan remained impassable or hardly passable due to landslides and mudslides. Typhoon Pepeng lashed Northern Luzon last week after making its third landfall, bringing heavy rains that caused floods and landslides.- GMANews.TV