Christmas typhoon death toll in Philippines climbs to 41

The number of deaths from a powerful storm that swept across the Philippines on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day has reached 41, authorities said yesterday.

Tens of thousands of displaced people are still in evacuation centres.

Typhoon Phanfone left the Philippines on Saturday after devastating several islands in the region of Central Visayas, including popular tourist destinations, but the extent of the damage continued to grow as assessments came in.

The death toll of 41, up from 28 on Friday, included three crew members who died after their vessel capsized in strong winds, a policeman electrocuted by a toppled post and a man struck by a felled tree.

“We’re hoping that there will be no more fatalities,” national disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal said as authorities continued to search for 12 missing people.

The agency’s latest report showed more than 1.6 million people were affected by the typhoon, which damaged more than 260,000 houses and forced almost 100,000 people to flee to emergency shelters.

Many of the affected residents in the predominantly Catholic nation celebrated Christmas in evacuation centres, where they may have to stay until the new year given the scale of the destruction.

The government estimated that the storm has caused damage to agriculture and infrastructure worth $21 million (Dh77.1m).

Power lines and internet connections remain down in some areas after Phanfone’s gusts of up to 200kph toppled electric posts and trees.

Typhoon Phanfone, known in the Philippines as Ursula, is the 21st cyclone to hit the storm-prone archipelago, which is the first large nation facing the Pacific typhoon belt.

Many of the storms are deadly, and they often wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure, keeping millions of people poor.