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At least four people have been killed and several others injured as the strongest typhoon hit the Philippines this year as it swept through the archipelago, uprooting trees, tearing down power lines and flooding villages along the way.
According to the Rappler news website, four dead were reported in the central Philippine province of Negros Occidental on Friday, and a 64-year-old woman was crushed when a tree in the town of San Carlos fell on her home.
The extent of the damage caused by the Super Typhoon Rai is not yet known, as many of the affected provinces continue to be cut.
Locally known as Typhoon Odette, the storm picked up maximum winds of 195 kilometers per hour (120 miles) when it hit Siargao Island on Thursday.
The wind speed dropped to 155 km / h on Friday as the storm moved into the western province of Palawan. It was expected to surface over the South China Sea on Saturday.
The AFP news agency said more than 300,000 people had sought emergency shelter as the typhoon swept across the Pacific Ocean on Thursday. He said about 18,000 need to return home.
Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindogan, from the Philippine capital, Manila, said “Philippine officials are struggling to assess the extent of the typhoon damage as telecommunications lines in the affected provinces continue to be cut.”
“We have very little information at the moment, but the little that comes out seems pretty sad,” he said. “We are watching people standing on the rooftops, waiting for the rescue. Immersed in houses and airports do not work. The government says it is considering re-establishing lines of communication to fully assess where or how to send aid to those most in need. ”
The town of Surigao, on the southern island of Mindanao, was badly damaged by local media.
“We are seeing people walking the streets, many of them shell-shocked,” said ABS-CBN correspondent Dennis Datuk, Surigao reported. “All the buildings were badly damaged, including the provincial disaster offices. It looks like a bomb has struck. ‘
The ABS-CBN correspondent said the main roads leading to the coastal city had been overturned by landslides, fallen trees and electricity poles.
Surigao City Mayor Ernesto Matugas told the network that Raik had devastated the city of about 170,000 people for several hours on Thursday, causing “serious” damage.
“The wind was very strong,” Matugas said. “It all suffered damage: roofs exploded, landslides blocked access roads.”
In the central province of Bohol Island, 37-year-old Joel Darunday told AFP it was “difficult to explain the disaster.”
Residents are removing things from their destroyed homes in the coastal town of Dulag in Leyte province on December 17, 2021. [Bobbie Alota/ AFP]
A child plays next to exiled coconuts and bananas in the coastal town of Dulag in Leyte province on December 17, 2021. [Bobbie Alota/ AFP]The tour operator said he was gathered at home with his family when the storm ripped through the roof.
“He was very strong. The last time I lived in the 1980s was something like that, ”he said.
In northwestern Bohol, central Cebu province, photographs showed the buildings on the sidewalks of Lapu-Lapu city flattened by storms, while corrugated iron roofs and branches splashed the streets.
Rai is heading to the Philippines late in the typhoon season, and most of the cyclones will develop between July and October.
Scientists have long warned that typhoons are growing stronger and stronger as the world warms as a result of human-induced climate change.
A super typhoon is the equivalent of a five-category hurricane in the United States.
The earth is prone to about five storms a year.
The Philippines, which ranks among the most vulnerable countries in the world as a result of climate change, suffers an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, usually destroying crops, housing and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.
The deadliest cyclone in the Philippines was super typhoon Haiyan, which killed or disappeared more than 7,300 people in 2013.
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