Typhoon Rai death toll rises as affected Filipinos seek help Weather News

As a result of the strongest typhoon in the Philippines this year, the death toll has risen to 75, official figures showed on Sunday as the government struggles to provide emergency food aid in the country’s most devastated areas.

More than 300,000 people fled their homes and beach resorts as Typhoon Rai devastated the southern and central regions of the archipelago.

The storm tore the roofs apart and overturned concrete electricity poles while removing communications and removing electricity, making it difficult to receive updates from some areas.

Arthur Yap, governor of the popular tourist destination Bohol, said on his official Facebook page that the mayors of the devastated island had reported 49 dead in their villages.

This brought the overall death toll to 75, according to the latest official figures. But with emergency and disaster management personnel with some areas still inaccessible, deaths could rise.

Yap said 10 people were still missing on the island and 13 were injured after storms hit the country on Thursday as a super typhoon hit a wind speed of 195 kilometers per hour (120 miles per hour).

“Communications are still down. Only 21 of the 48 mayors have reached us, “Yap wrote on social media, raising fears that the death toll could rise in the flooded province.

Al Jazeera has learned that in some parts of Bohol, residents were forced to climb on rooftops when the water rose on Friday morning.

Thousands of military, police, coastguard and firefighters are deploying to assist in search and rescue efforts in the affected areas.

Secretary of Transportation Arthur Tugade also said in a statement on Sunday that President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered the necessary resources to be allocated to help those in need.

“Calm down, we’ll deliver,” Tugad said.

Residents of Surigao, the capital of Surigao del Norte province, told the ABS-CBN news channel on Saturday that many of those who had lost their homes had not yet received help from the national government two days after the disaster.

“We would like to ask the national government to intervene to help us here. We have no communication at the moment. The food we have prepared for the evacuees has been damaged by the typhoon,” Giga Gokiangkee, deputy governor of Surigao del Norte, told ABS-CBN.

In the neighboring island province of Dinagat, Deputy Governor Nile Demery also said that about 95 percent of his area was destroyed on Saturday. At least six people have been reported dead in areas already reached by provincial authorities, but many places in the province were still inaccessible.

Demery had to move to Surigao City to seek help for her province because the lines of communication were cut off. Demery told reporters she was worried that food would run out in her province.

Widespread destruction

A Philippine Navy ship carrying goods and other aid was scheduled to leave for Bohol on Monday, Yap said after declaring a state of calamity on the island earlier.

The destruction of the islands of Siargao, Dinagat and Mindanao has also been widespread, which affected Rai when he moved to the Philippines.

Aerial photos shared by the military showed extensive damage in the town of General Luna in Siargao, where many surfers and holidaymakers gathered before Christmas, with the buildings removed from the roofs and debris splashed on the ground.

Dinagat Governor Arlene Bag-ao said on Saturday that the damage to the island’s landscape was “not more memorable” than the one caused by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Haiyan, known as Yolanda in the Philippines, was the deadliest cyclone on record in the country, killing more than 7,300 people or leaving them dead.

Rai’s wind speeds dropped to 150 km / h (93 mph) across the country, and the town was flooded with torrential rains, tearing down trees and smashing wooden structures.

It formed over the South China Sea on Saturday and headed for Vietnam.

The Philippines, which is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in the face of climate change, suffers from an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, usually destroying crops, housing and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.