The damage wrought by super typhoon Lawin in northern Philippines , especially in the province of Cagayan where the howler made landfall last Wednesday is “much, much lesser than Yolanda did to Leyte province in 2013.

Ricardo Jalad, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRMMC) said in a text message to Daily Manila Shimbun Saturday he made this statement “based on casualty report, initial report of damage and my ocular inspection.”

Jalad told government radio in another interview that on Friday he and his team flew on a transport plane over Cagayan and Ilocos Norte. They saw widespread damage to infrastructure and crops.

“The biggest concern there (in Cagayan) are damaged crops,” said Jalad.

Jalad said: “There is an ongoing rapid damage and needs assessment. The initial report is not reliable so we have to send interagency team to assess the damage.”

“Within the Tuguegarao City , there are a lot of damaged buildings, houses, government building and business establishments but I haven’t seen totally damaged structures.” Jalad said.

In Tuguegarao City , Jalad said a lot of buildings were damaged but not totally destroyed.

Deaths have reached 16, of which 13 were reported killed due to landslides in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Jalad said. Three casualties were recorded in Cagayan Valley .

Displaced individuals rose to 149,659 or 35,486 families but a total of 29,533 families and 116,826 persons are inside a total of 1,095 evacuation centers, the disaster risk reduction council said.

“As of yesterday, we have recorded 16 dead. In, (it’s the) combined (figure of) Region II and Cordillera, in Region I we have not recorded any casualty, “ said Jalad

“Rice crops were destroyed, some were hit by flooding,” he added.

Jalad said Laoag City and another municipality in Ilocos Norte under state of calamity.

In a television interview, Cagayan province Governor Manuel Mamba said his province was placed under state calamity.

In its latest report, the disaster risk reduction council showed damage to properties in four regions reached P657.8 million. Of the total,. Infrastructure accounted to P581.9 million while agriculture drew P 75.86 million for agriculture. Robina Asido/DMS

The number of damaged houses also rose to 6,308, of which 1,099 were totally destroyed and 5,209 were partially damaged.

The NDRRMC also reported that 58 road sections and 17 bridges were still not passable because of flooding and landslide incidents in Regions I, II, III and CAR. Robina Asido/DMS