Tacloban City (March 5) --- The typhoons and floods that swept through Eastern Visayas, one of the country's poorest regions, last year damaged P1.7-billion worth of private and government infrastructures across the region.

The calamities also claimed 47 lives, according to a report on disasters prepared by the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD).

Rey Gozon, regional OCD operations chief, said of the three typhoons that hit the region in 2008, it was Frank that was most devastating. It killed 20 people and destroyed more than P600 million in infrastructure and crops.

Floods from heavy rains in February last year killed 25 persons and destroyed at least P1 billion in infrastructure and crops, Gozon said.

Fires that occurred last year at the old public market in Isabel, Leyte and residential areas in Tacloban City burned over P12 million in pieces of property.

Eastern Visayas is among the regions in the country that often experience natural calamities like typhoons. An average of 10 typhoons and tropical depressions occur in the region each year.

While nothing could be done about the regular occurrence of typhoons in Eastern Visayas, Gozon said their effects could be minimized if the region's local government units (LGUs) have disaster management plans in place.

Northern Samar and Southern Leyte were among LGUs in Eastern Visayas that have active disaster management offices, he said.

Southern Leyte suffered one of the most devastating natural calamities when a mudslide buried the entire village of Guinsaugon in St. Bernard town, killing hundreds of people, including 200 elementary students on Feb. 17, 2006.

Early this year, the province of Northern Samar suffered heavy losses due to the non-stop rains that killed 11 persons and destroyed pieces of property worth P27 million.