Philippines reduces tropical storm death toll to 45

(Update 1: updates with reduced casualties, adds details)

Manila, Oct 29 (EFE).- Philippines authorities on Saturday reduced the death toll from the tropical storm Nalgae from 72 to 45, hours after it made landfall in the early morning, after analyzing the number of casualties reported by the provinces.

Civil defense undersecretary Raymundo Ferrer said in a press conference that there had been an excessive count, and the new number reflected the number of verified deaths.

Earlier, the National Council for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction had reported 72 deaths, but corrected the figure after local authorities revised their data.

Of the 45 deaths, 40 took place in the city of Maguindanao, most of them due to landslides and floods, while three people died in Central Mindanao and two others in the West Visayas region, defense secretary Jose Faustino Jr said in the presser.

The Category 3 tropical storm injured 33 people while at least 18 people remain missing.

The southern provinces and cities of the archipelago took the brunt of the storm’s damage.

So far, Nalgae has caused the evacuation of about 7,300 people, affecting over 50,000 households and over 184,000 people.

As a precaution, 425 cities have temporarily closed their schools.

The authorities informed that over 100 flights had been canceled, while over 5,000 ports had suspended operations due to weather conditions.

Nalgae made landfall in the province of Catanduanes during the early hours of Saturday, with maximum winds of 95 km/h.

The storm is forecast to deliver torrential rainfall to the capital city of Manila and adjacent provinces during the weekend as it advances towards the main island of Luzon and into the South China Sea, according to the Philippine Meteorological Agency.

Nalgae made landfall barely over a month after Typhoon Noru swept through the Philippines, killing at least 12 people and evacuating around 14,000 people in September.

Every year, over 20 tropical storms hit the Philippines, making it one of the most vulnerable countries to the consequences of climate change. EFE

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