The death toll from a Christmas typhoon that tore through the central Philippines rose to 28 on Friday, with 12 people missing, a local disaster agency said, as authorities moved to restore power and residents tried to repair damaged homes.
Typhoon Phanfone hit late on Tuesday with winds of up to 120km/h and gusts of 150km/h, dumping sheets of uninterrupted rain on a string of islands, damaging hundreds of homes and causing flooding in eight areas.
It was the seventh typhoon to strike the Philippines this year and came as millions of people in the predominantly Catholic country were heading home to celebrate Christmas with families.
Some 43,000 people were in temporary shelters on Friday, with 185,000 impacted by the typhoon overall. The storm destroyed 49 homes and partially damaged 2,000.
There was widespread travel disruption, with 115 flights cancelled and thousands of people left stranded by the suspension of ferries due to storm surges.
It was unclear how the deaths occurred, but officials said some of the victims were electrocuted or hit by trees, while others had drowned.
"People did not expect that the storm would be that devastating," said disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal.
Though less powerful than other typhoons this year, Phanfone made landfall in some of the country’s poorest and least-developed islands.
Among them was the island of Samar, which bore the brunt of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, the Philippines's most powerful and deadliest storm on record. It killed more than 6,300 people.
Residents there were clearing debris, with wooden pillars and sheets of corrugated iron roof that once formed homes scattered across the ground. People were also trying to recover fishing boats with tangled or damaged outriggers.
‘Stay strong’
Samar resident Virgilo Catayas, a sibling of whom was among those killed by Haiyan, said he lost another to hypertension when Phanfone hit.
“We can’t really do much if that’s what happened, we’ll have to accept it,” he told broadcaster ABS-CBN. “The important thing is to stay strong,” he said, sitting next to a casket.
Television showed minor damage to the airport at Kalibo, an alternative gateway to the holiday island of Boracay, while the disaster agency said 55 schools had suffered some damage.
The agriculture department estimated initial damages of 569 million pesos (€10.03 million), mostly to fish farms.
Images on social media showed government workers clearing trees from roads, with a clear blue sky after the storm moved out over the South China Sea late on Wednesday. – Reuters