Oct. 30 (UPI) — The death toll from a severe tropical storm that battered the Philippines over the weekend rose to nearly 100 on Monday, officials said as they began to gauge the degree of damage Nalgae brought to their archipelago nation.
Severe Tropical Storm Nalgae, known locally as Paeng, made landfall early Saturday over Virac, Catanduanes, before making at least five more landfalls as it barreled across the Southeast Asian nation, leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
At least 98 were killed in the storm with another 69 injured and 63 still missing, the Philippines’ disaster agency said in its 6 a.m. Monday update.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said it had confirmed 58 deaths and was seeking to confirm another 40.
Officials said 554 areas reported flooding with 99 of them experiencing landslides, making impassable nearly 200 roads and more than 70 bridges, officials said, adding nearly 4,200 homes were damaged, including some 689 that were totally destroyed.
Ahead of the storm, officials preemptively evacuated 105,726 people from across the country, but by Monday morning nearly 1 million people were displaced by the storm.
Officials are estimating that nearly 2 million people and nearly 600,000 families have been affected.
UNICEF said Saturday schools and child development centers have been flooded.
“Children are the least responsible for extreme weather events, and yet they are the ones being displaced, in mental distress and cut-off from schools and hospitals,” Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, a U.N. children’s agency’s representative, said in a statement. “Communities in the Philippines are simply not safe enough.”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to lead the distribution of relief goods to those affected by the storm in Cavite, located in Luzon, on Monday, Rappler reported, adding that he is to hold a situation briefing in the province following an aerial inspection of the region.
“Our prayers go to the lives lost … and to those who continue to be gravely affected by this calamity,” he tweeted over the weekend.