LINGAYEN – A total of 28 persons in Pangasinan perished in the worst typhoon disaster ever to hit the province in years, according to an update from the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) on killer typhoon Cosme released late today, Tuesday.

The provincial figure on fatalities already included four dead from Dagupan City.

Damage to agriculture so far has reached P1,842,578,140 with fruit-bearing trees suffering the brunt of the typhoon’s gale-force winds, followed by palay and corn. Fisheries also took a massive beating where damage was placed at P854,620,000.

The figures for both fatalities and total agriculture and property damages are still rising as more reports are coming in.

Hitting central and western Pangasinan severely, the typhoon left 19,538 totally damaged houses and 40,902 partially damaged ones, the biggest destruction to residences in a single typhoon ever recorded, officials said.

Damage to government infrastructure — hospitals, government buildings, municipal and school buildings, roads and bridges – was estimated at more than P60 million.

PDCC executive officer Pat Orduna told a media briefing today that rapid assessment teams from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) have arrived to help local relief and rehabilitation teams.

Power restoration work is going on and partial power restoration is expected by the first week of June, Orduna said, quoting mainly from Transco and electric cooperatives’ pronouncements during the PDCC meetings.

Many Pangasinenses said the disaster brought by Cosme greatly surpassed the tragedy left by the last killer typhoon Gading in 1998 that kept power and commerce down for over a month.