Death toll from Philippines typhoon climbs to 375

dpa Manila The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year has climbed to 375, with entire communities levelled and many left wi...

dpaManilaThe death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year has climbed to 375, with entire communities levelled and many left without electricity, water and food, officials said on Monday.Fifty-six people were also missing in the aftermath of Typhoon Rai in central and southern provinces, according to police data. More than 480,000 people were also displaced as Rai triggered landslides and flash floods, the country’s national disaster agency said.“We are still assessing the damage, but it is huge as per initial reports - entire communities levelled to the ground, no electricity, water and food,” said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who also heads the disaster agency.Lorenzana said the military has mobilized all assets to help in relief and rehabilitation efforts and to attend to hundreds of injured people.“Everyone will be served in due time,” he said amid appeals for water, food and other relief supplies from areas affected by the typhoon.Police said 170 deaths due to Rai were reported from the central Visayas region, which includes the provinces of Cebu, Bohol and Negros Oriental. In Bohol alone, 94 deaths were recorded, according to Governor Arthur Yap.The entire province of Bohol still has no electricity, and Yap reiterated an appeal for donations of power generators after being told it would take about one month to repair distribution facilities.  Deaths reported in the southern Caraga region, where the hard-hit provinces of Dinagat Islands and Surigao Del Norte are located, were at 167, while 24 were killed in Western Visays region, according to police data.Fourteen other fatalities were reported in other areas, police said. Most of the victims were hit by falling trees or collapsed structures, while others were buried in landslides or drowned in flash floods, according to the police figures. Mobile phone signals in many devastated areas were still down in the province, leaving many unable to call their relatives.Dinagat Governor Arlene Bag-ao asked residents to write letters to their loved ones, and she posted these on Facebook. “Please stop worrying about me,” said Jillian Lee in a letter to her parents in Manila. “I’m fine. I’m always fine ... The house you all wanted me to move out is one of the houses still standing.” In another letter by Aimee Jimeno, she told her sister that she and their family have survived the typhoon. “We are happy to be alive,” she said. “Our houses are roofless but we are not hopeless.” The police gave a higher death toll than the national disaster agency, which was still reporting 58 fatalities on Monday. The agency also reported only 18 missing.Mark Timbal, spokesman for the national disaster agency, said the reported deaths were still undergoing verification, but noted that the police data was being treated as a “projection” of what to expect.Rai slammed into the country’s east coast on Thursday and barrelled through the archipelago overnight.The typhoon also damaged a number of airports in the central and southern Philippines, and two remained closed to commercial flights, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said.The airports in Surigao City and Siargao Island, both in the southern Philippines, are only able to accept government, emergency, cargo and humanitarian flights, the CAAP said.“Most of the airports that were affected by the typhoon are still experiencing commercial power and telecommunication signal loss,” the agency said. “To restore communication channels, CAAP has dispatched satellite phones to the airports that will be needing them most,” it added.Philippine archipelago is hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones every year.The strongest typhoon to ever hit the Philippines was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which killed 6,300 and displaced more than 4 million people in November 2013.