Philippines: The death toll from Super Typhoon Rai (also known as Odette), has risen to at least 208 people after the storm blew across the archipelago late last week, causing massive flooding and devastation. According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), 52 people are still missing, while at least 239 others have received “significant injuries.” The Central Visayas region has the most fatalities (129), followed by Western Visayas with 22 deaths, and said Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Col. Rhoderick Augustus Alba.
According to the reports, typhoon-related deaths have also been reported in the Philippine provinces of Caraga (10), Northern Mindanao (7), and Zamboanga. In the early hours of Monday that Philippine authorities had raised the storm death toll to 208. Rai, the Philippines’ 15th typhoon of the year, made landfall on Siargao Island, a famous tourist and surfing destination on the country’s central east coast, on Thursday. It had gusts of up to 260 kilometres per hour (160 miles per hour) at first, making it a Category 5 storm.
More than 180,800 people remain homeless, and power outages have been reported in more than 3,000 locations across the Philippines. More than 332,000 people had to be evacuated as Rai slammed the Philippines on December 16th, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). Only 4of the 31 fatalities recorded by the NDRRMC were proven to be typhoon-related.