State of calamity declared in flood-hit Filipino city

A state of calamity has been declared in the southern city of Zamboanga on Thursday due to massive floods and landslides caused by torrential rains since Saturday.

The declaration came on the advice of the city's disaster management council, citing extensive damage to agriculture and infrastructure.

The city's social welfare office reported that seven people were killed in the rain-related incidents.

Several areas are inundated that caused more than 3,600 families to evacuate from 17 villages, the office said.

Local officials also noted that 158 of 485 damaged houses were totally destroyed.

Diosdado Palacat, the city's agriculturist, revealed that the estimated damage to agriculture is PHP45.97 million ($892,483).

The floods have damaged 310 hectares (766 acres) of rice fields, 477 hectares (1178 acres) of corn farms, 144 hectares (356 acres) of vegetable farms, 200 hectares (494 acres) of seaweeds and 857 hectares (2118 acres) of fishponds, affecting at least 1,150 farmers, he said.

Around P20 million ($388,290) of damages in infrastructure was also reported by the local government's engineer Office.