MANILA, Philippines ? The United Nations Wednesday appealed for $144 million to help victims of a series of storms that devastated the Philippines, nearly double its original request.

Latest assessments by UN agencies and NGOs showed that some 4.2 million Filipinos were still in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 520,000 children below 5 years old.

In a news release posted on its website, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the storms in September and October not only displaced people but also severely affected agricultural production.

?Of particular concern for humanitarian agencies are the estimated 1.7 million people still displaced or living in areas that remain flooded,? Ocha said.

?These areas are likely to remain flooded for another three or four months, putting those affected at serious risk of disease outbreaks,? the agency added.

Children may stop schooling

In a statement, UN resident coordinator Jacqueline Badcock said that if the funding shortfall continued, some 1.2 million school children may not be able to resume their education.

The appeal for increased assistance came after the United Nations noted that only $26 million had been received so far out of the $74 million initial appeal.

?The emergency response is being hampered by low levels of funding, particularly in areas such as agriculture, protection, shelter and education of children,? Badcock said.

Queue for relief items

In the lakeshore community of Muntinlupa alone, the United Nations said that elderly women continued to queue for relief items.

Nearly 1,000 people died as a result of Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? (international name: Ketsana) and Typhoons ?Pepeng? (Parma) and ?Santi? (Mirinae), which affected 9.8 million people and destroyed more than 40,000 homes.

Ondoy swept across Luzon on Sept. 26, bringing months? worth of rain in just 12 hours and causing the worst flooding in 40 years to Metro Manila. The storm affected 4 million Filipinos, killed almost 300 people and destroyed or badly damaged tens of thousands of houses, according to the United Nations.

A week later on Oct. 3, Pepeng blew across the country?s mountainous north, making landfall in northern Luzon, reversing track twice and bringing heavy rains over an area much larger than initially anticipated.

More than 400 people died in landslides though Metro Manila, still awash in floodwaters from Ondoy, was spared a new disaster.

Pepeng was followed by Santi on Oct. 31, which battered the country for the third time in just over a month, leaving about 30 dead.

The storms have severely affected the planting season in northern Luzon, the main agricultural region in the Philippines.

Half a million lost all assets

Preliminary assessments by the Department of Agriculture and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that between 100,000 and 120,000 farming households, or half a million people, lost all of their production and assets.

Aid agencies have been reporting that funding shortfalls have limited their ability to follow through with humanitarian action plans designed to support life-saving projects and to launch early recovery efforts.

The World Food Program (WFP) and FAO have revised estimates of emergency and early recovery needs, taking into account new assessment data and additional needs.

Safe water, sanitation

Among the key concerns for aid agencies remain access to safe water, sanitation facilities and hygiene items in the relocation camps and in residential areas affected by floods.

Particularly concerned about the impact of the storms on young children, the WFP was making preparations to start a supplementary feeding program with the assistance of national nutrition authorities.

An assessment mission comprising representatives of the WFP, the UN Children?s Fund, the UN World Health Organization, government departments and NGOs has inspected some of the hardest hit areas. Reports from Agence France-Presse and Cynthia D. Balana