The damage to agriculture due to the effect of Severe Tropical Storm ''Florita'' reached P10.1 million, an Office of Civil Defense (OCD) official said on Thursday.

During the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing, OCD Assistant Secretary Raffy Alejandro said there were hundreds of farmers affected in the Ilocos Region and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

"So far based on our report there are 724 farmers and close to 1,200 hectares were affected in Regions I and CAR. Our estimate for now is 10.1 million (pesos)," he said.

Alejandro said damage is expected to increase. On Wednesday, Agriculture Undersecretary Kristine Evangelista said preliminary damage was estimated at P 3 million.

"Hopefully the damage assessment that is being done now by the Department of Agriculture and other agencies will get in and we expect these figures to rise. So as of now, it is around 10 million (pesos). We expect that as soon as the rapid assessment is completed today we will be able to get more or less the exact figures of the affected agricultural sector," he said.

"In fact in Region II (Cagayan Valley), we already give the authority to conduct rapid assessment in the region. They are waiting for helicopters for the conduct of aerial assessment on the effect of the storm in the region," he added.

Alejandro said since weather in the storm-affected area has improved, the government is mobilizing all of its resources to restore power and water supply in the affected areas.

"Today, the weather is getting better. All our resources are now moving to complete their work today and hopefully everything will be restored and all assistance will be provided today until tomorrow," he said. Robina Asido/DMS