Death toll from year's deadliest typhoon in Philippines climbs to 67

MANILA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The death toll from the deadliest
cyclone to hit the Philippines this year has climbed to 67, with
12 people still missing, the national disaster management agency
said on Sunday.
President Rodrigo Duterte was scheduled to fly to the
northern Tuguegarao province later in the day to assess the
situation in Cagayan Valley region, which was heavily flooded
after Typhoon Vamco dumped rain over swathes of the main Luzon
island, including the capital, metropolitan Manila.
Twenty-two fatalities were recorded in Cagayan, 17 in
southern Luzon provinces, eight in Metro Manila, and 20 in two
other regions, said disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal.
Twenty-one people were injured, he said.
Many areas in Cagayan, a rice- and corn-producing region of
1.2 million people, remained submerged as of Sunday, according
to media reports.
Heavy flooding, caused by the accumulated effects of
previous weather disturbances, as well as water from a dam and
higher plains affected thousands of families, some of whom had
fled to rooftops to escape two-storey high floods.
The damage to agricultural commodities due to floods was
initially pegged at 1.2 billion pesos ($25 million), while
infrastructure damage was estimated at 470 million pesos, Timbal
said.
Nearly 26,000 houses were also damaged, he said.
Relief and rescue operations continued while the nearby
Magat Dam was still releasing water, two days after releasing a
volume equivalent to two Olympic-size pools per second, based on
government data. Vamco, the 21st cyclone to hit the Philippines this year,
tore through Luzon late on Wednesday and caused the worst
flooding in years in parts of the capital. It followed Super Typhoon Goni, the world's most powerful
storm this year, which brought heavy rain to southern Luzon
provinces and killed scores of people just a few days earlier.