Asia-Pacific

Typhoon Rai among deadliest storms in Philippines this year

At least 31 killed and 300,000 people in evacuation centres since typhoon hit on Friday

Rescuers pull a rubber boat as they assist residents who were trapped in their homes. Photograph: Philippine Coast Guard via AP

Sat Dec 18 2021 - 12:49

The feared death toll from a typhoon that battered the Philippines has risen to 31, officials said on Saturday, nearly triple the previous day’s number as rescue teams reach damaged areas and communication lines are restored.

Four people have been confirmed dead after being hit by falling trees and another 27 people are feared to have died as a result of Typhoon Rai, the country’s disaster agency said in a statement.

Rai was the 15th and among the deadliest of the tropical storms to strike the Philippine archipelago this year, driving more than 300,000 people to shelter in evacuation centres. Many areas were still without power on Saturday.

The hard-hit central provinces of Cebu and Bohol declared a state of calamity to access disaster funds and imposed a price freeze on basic goods.

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At one point a category 5 storm, the highest classification, Rai brought 195 km per hour winds before making landfall on Thursday.

Typhoon Rai, locally named as Odette, swept out of the Philippines on Saturday afternoon after making nine destructive landfalls, the first of which was in the holiday island of Siargao.

“Odette was really strong. Almost 95 per cent of houses in Dinagat Island are without a roof,” Nilo Demerey, vice governor of Surigao del Norte province, told a local radio station.

Evacuation centres housed in churches, schools and gyms were also badly hit, Demerey added.

Some 309,000 people remain in evacuation centres, data from the disaster agency showed.

Many areas are still without power, and corn and rice plantations have been flooded, Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor told the same radio station.

Typhoon Rai blew away on Friday night into the South China Sea after rampaging through southern and central island provinces, where more than 300,000 people in its path were evacuated to safety in a pre-emptive move officials say may have saved a lot of lives.

At its strongest, Rai packed sustained winds of 195kph and gusts of up to 270kph, one of the most powerful in recent years to hit the disaster-prone south-east Asian archipelago, which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.

The typhoon slammed into the country’s south-eastern coast on Thursday but the extent of casualties and destruction remained unclear two days after with entire provinces still without power and mobile phone connection.

National police reported at least 19 dead but did not provide other details. The government’s main disaster-response agency reported a lower toll of 12, mostly villagers hit by falling trees, because it said it had to carefully validate each death.

Officials on the Dinagat Islands, one of the first provinces to be lashed by the typhoon, remained cut off on Saturday due to downed power and communication lines.

Its governor, Arlene Bag-ao, posted a statement on the province’s website to say the region of about 180,000 “has been levelled to the ground”.

She pleaded for food, water, temporary shelters, fuel, hygiene kits and medical supplies. She said only a few casualties have been reported in the capital so far because other towns remain isolated.

“We may have survived, but we cannot do the same in the coming days because of our limited capacities as an island province,” Ms Bag-ao said, adding that some of Dinagat’s hospitals could not open due to damage.

“Most of our commercial and cargo vessels... are now unsuitable for sea voyages, effectively cutting us off from the rest of the country.”

Vice governor Nilo Demerey reached a nearby province and told the DZMM radio network that at least six residents had died and “almost 95 per cent of houses in Dinagat have no roof”, and even emergency shelters were destroyed.

“We’re currently doing repairs because even our evacuation centres were destroyed. There are no shelters, the churches, gymnasium, schools, public markets and even the capitol were all shattered,” Mr Demerey said.

Pictures posted on Dinagat’s website show low houses with roofs either blown off or damaged and surrounded by tin roof sheets and debris.

In central Bohol province, which was directly hit by the typhoon, the coastguard said its personnel on board rubber boats rescued residents who were trapped on roofs and trees, as waters rose rapidly.

With government contingency funds used for the coronavirus pandemic, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would look for money to help the provinces. He planned to visit the devastated region this weekend.

Approximately 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines each year. The archipelago is located in the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire” region, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. — Associated Press Additional reporting by Reuters

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