CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The floods wrought by typhoons Pedring and Quiel have been listed as the 176th “deadliest” flooding in world history, but are likely to rise to the 164th rank amid belated reports of fatalities.
The Philippine Information Agency (PIA) here cited the Internet’s Wikipedia’s “list of deadliest floods” which was topped by the China floods of 1931 which killed from 2.5 million to 3.7 million people, followed by the Yellow River flood, also in China in 1887 which killed from 900,000 to 2 million people.
A total of 191 flooding events were listed by Wikipedia, Internet’s free encyclopedia.
The Wikipedia list was apparently not updated as it ranked 176th the Philippine floods caused by Pedring and Quiel with only 47 dead, next to the Mississippi great flood of 1993 which killed 50 people.
The estimate was before the Office of Civil Defense updated reports on fatalities placed at 101. It noted that of the total, 82 fatalities arose from Pedring and another 19 during Quiel.
This update would rank the Philippines on 164th in Wikipedia’s list, to displace Poland whose so-called “flood of the millennium” in 1997 claimed 98 lives. The Philippines would then come after South Africa whose floods in 1981 killed 104 people.
The biblical Noah’s flood, which occurred in ancient times, was not included by Wikipedia.
This, even as the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Central Luzon finished yesterday its final report showing that Pedring and Quiel destroyed a total of P8.7 billion in agriculture and fisheries.
The report said Nueva Ecija, dubbed rice granary of the Philippines, accounted for almost half of the total or about P3.7 billion in damages, followed by Bulacan with P2 billion and Pampanga with P1.3 billion. Tarlac sustained a P900 million injury, Bataan P340 million, Zambales P155 million, and Aurora with P46 million.
DA regional director Andrew Villacorta said, however, that the rice supply of Central Luzon would not be seriously affected despite 285,000 hectares of damaged farmlands.
The DA’s final report also said Bulacan topped the list of the most ravaged fish farms with P109 million in damages, followed by Pampanga with P49 million and Bataan with P29 million. Over 7,000 hectares of fishponds raising milkfish, tilapia and tiger prawns were affected.
It said Central Luzon would need P236 million to rehabilitate the agriculture sector and provide assistance to the afflicted 350,000 farmers.
The DA said the government has already allocated some P206 million to rehabilitate rice production, P21 million for the fisheries, P4 million for livestock, P2 million for high value commercial crops, and P1 million for the corn industry in Central Luzon.
The DA regional office is also providing farmers with 100 percent subsidy on hybrid and certified rice seeds for those whose corps were totally damaged and 50 percent for those with partially damaged.
