Manila, Dec. 19 (BNA) The governor of an island province in the central Philippines said that at least 49 people died in the devastation caused by Typhoon Ray in half of the towns it was able to contact, raising the death toll in the country. The strongest hurricane to hit the country this year has increased to nearly 100.
Bohol Provincial Governor Arthur Yap said 10 more people are missing and 13 injured, and indicated that the death toll may continue to increase dramatically with many mayors unable to reach him due to a communication outage.
In a statement posted to Facebook early Sunday, Yap ordered counties to spend money to quickly secure packages of food and drinking water, an urgent problem given that water stations were unable to operate during the blackout.
After joining a military aerial survey of hurricane-devastated towns, Yap said, “It’s very clear that the damage to Bohol is great and extensive.” , according to the Associated Press.
He said the inspection did not include four towns, where the hurricane blew as it erupted Thursday and Friday across central island counties. The government said about 780,000 people were affected, including more than 300,000 residents who had to evacuate their homes.
At least 39 more deaths from the typhoon were reported by the National Disaster Response Agency and the National Police. Officials in Dynagat Islands, one of the southeastern counties first hit by the typhoon, separately reported just 10 deaths from a few towns, bringing the total death toll so far to 98.
President Rodrigo Duterte traveled to the region on Saturday promising 2 billion pesos ($40 million) in new aid.
At its strongest, the typhoon packed sustained winds of 195 kilometers (121 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour), one of the strongest to hit the disaster-prone archipelago, which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea. Southern.
Every year about 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines. The archipelago is located in the seismically active “Ring of Fire” region of the Pacific Ocean, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
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