At least 28 people have died after a powerful typhoon tore across central Philippines on Christmas Day.

Twelve remained missing and two were injured, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council said yesterday.

Typhoon Phanfone, known locally as Ursula, devastated Christmas celebrations in this predominantly Catholic country. It hit the Philippines on Christmas Eve with winds of up to 195kmh.

By Christmas Day, it was tearing off roofs, cutting off Internet and mobile phone services, downing electric posts and knocking out power in nearly 150 cities and towns, as well as setting off landslides and storm surges that swept through many coastal districts.

More than 58,000 people had been evacuated in advance.

The council said 13 of those who died were in hard-hit Iloilo province, in the Visayas region.

An entire family of six was found dead in Batad town, Iloilo. They were apparently swept away by floodwaters and drowned.

One disaster response officer described Batad as a “ghost town” on Christmas Day.

“You can’t see anybody because there was a total blackout. You can’t hear anything. It looked like a ghost town,” Ms Cindy Ferrer of the regional Office of the Civil Defence told the Associated Press.

12

Number of people still missing.

2

Number who were injured.

58,000

Number of people who were evacuated.

There were also casualties reported in the provinces of Capiz, Aklan, Leyte, Biliran and Samar, and in Cebu City, all in the Visayas.

Most of the deaths reported by national police and local officials were due to drowning, falling trees and accidental electrocution.

On Thursday, Pope Francis offered prayers for those killed and displaced by Phanfone. “I join in the pain that affected the dear people of the Philippines because of Typhoon Phanfone,” he said.

The pontiff then asked the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus prayer to join him in praying for the Philippines.

“I pray for the numerous victims, the wounded, and for their families,” he said.

The storm weakened as it blew into the South China Sea with sustained winds of 120kmh and gusts of 150kmh.

Phanfone brought misery on a day usually filled with family reunions, feasts and dawn masses.

Tens of thousands were forced to leave their homes and spend Christmas in schools, gymnasiums and government buildings.

Around 20,000 travellers were stranded at airports and harbours.

Provincial officials, army troops, police and volunteers tended to the thousands of displaced people in gyms and schools turned into emergency shelters.

Phanfone, a Laotian word for animal, cut through the same path as Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most destructive typhoons ever recorded that left more than 7,300 people dead and displaced over five million in November 2013.

The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt, and is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons yearly. Scores of people die and harvests, homes and other infrastructure are destroyed, keeping millions perennially poor.

A July study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop 1 per cent off the Philippines’ economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly 3 per cent.

Source: Read Full Article