At least 375 people were killed and 56 are missing following Typhoon Odette, the latest disaster to hit the archipelago, with 500 more injured, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Monday.
The PNP Regional Offices reported the following breakdown for typhoon-related deaths: Region 6 – 24; Region 7 – 170; Region 8 – 6; Region 9 – 1; Region 10 – 7; and Region 13 – 167.
The number of fatalities was higher than National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s (NDRRMC) data of 58 deaths in the typhoon.
A senior official at the national disaster agency said he had not expected so many fatalities.
“I was proven wrong as it appears now coming from the reports,” said Casiano Monilla, deputy administrator for operations.
The Philippines—ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change—is hit by an average of 20 storms every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes, and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.
Typhoon Yolanda was at the time the strongest storm ever to have made landfall and left over 7,300 people dead or missing. The death toll from Odette is not expected to get anywhere close to that number.
Among the people hurt by the storm, 364 were in Region 7, 15 in Region 8, three in Region 10 and 118 in Region 13.
A total of 56 persons are still missing after the typhoon ravaged several parts of Visayas and Mindanao, the PNP said, with 47 missing in Region 7, one in Region 8, and eight in Region 13.
The police also rescued 4,945 victims of the typhoon. The total count of evacuees was 99,568 people or 30,065 families, the PNP said.
The spokesperson of the NDRRMC said Odette could be considered the fiercest tropical cyclone to hit this country which averages 20 typhoons a year.
But Mark Timbal claimed that unlike in previous “devastating” typhoons, local government and the public preparedness was more focused this time, citing over 400,000 potential victims of Odette who were preemptively evacuated.
Meanwhile, 442,424 people were displaced while 385,086 individuals were preemptively evacuated, according to the NDRRMC.
It added that 2,435 evacuation centers were opened for the victims.
A total of 997,665 people or 276,522 families in 2,961 barangays were affected by the typhoon. AFP with Joel E. Zurbano
The NDRRMC also reported that 118 seaports and four airports were affected. At least 41 roads and four bridge sections were also affected.
At least 227 cities and municipalities experienced power interruptions, one area had water problems, and 136 localities had communication line issues.
One of the hardest-hit islands was Bohol—known for its beaches, rolling “Chocolate Hills” and tiny tarsier primates—where at least 94 people have died, provincial Gov. Arthur Yap said on his official Facebook page.
Many wooden houses in the coastal town of Ubay were flattened and small fishing boats destroyed on the island, where a state of calamity has been declared.
At least 14 people died on the Dinagat Islands, provincial information officer Jeffrey Crisostomo told broadcaster ABS-CBN.
“Dinagat Islands has been leveled to the ground,” he said. With Joel E. Zurbano