MANILA (Agencies/SE): “I express my closeness to the population of the Philippines, struck by a strong typhoon” Pope Francis said after the Sunday Angelus on December 19, Vatican News reported. The pope said: “May the Santo Niño bring consolation and hope to the families in difficulty, and inspire in us the need to offer concrete help.”
Super Typhoon Rai [locally called Odette], the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, uprooted trees, toppled power lines, tore off roofs and flooded villages as it ripped across the archipelago, leaving at least 375 people dead and half-a-million displaced, UCAN and Inquirer.net reported.
Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, declared a state of calamity on December 21.
Rai slammed into Siargao Island on December 16, packing maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometres per hour according to PAGASA, the state weather forecaster.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled homes and beachfront resorts as the storm pummeled the southern and central regions of the country, knocking out communications in some areas and tearing roofs off buildings.
“We are seeing people walking in the streets, many of them shell-shocked,” ABS-CBN correspondent, Dennis Datu, reported from the hard-hit city of Surigao, on the southern island of Mindanao.
“All buildings sustained heavy damage, including the provincial disaster office. It looks like it’s been hit by a bomb,” Datu reported.
He said the main roads leading into the coastal city had been cut off by landslides, fallen trees and toppled power poles.
Verified photos taken in nearby Lapu-Lapu city showed roadside buildings flattened by the storm, while sheets of corrugated iron roofing and branches littered streets
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on December 20 that over 1.8 million people had been affected with spokesperson, Mark Timbal, telling GMA News that 438,359 of them were staying outside evacuation centres, or at the homes of relatives or friends.
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UCAN reported that Surigao City mayor, Ernesto Matugas, told ABS-CBN that Rai ravaged the city of around 170,000 people for several hours, causing “severe” damage, saying, “Everything sustained damage—roofs blown off, access roads blocked by landslides.”
Scores of flights were cancelled across the country and dozens of ports temporarily closed as the weather bureau warned several-metre-high storm surges could cause “life-threatening flooding” in low-lying coastal areas.
“The devastation is hard to explain,” said Joel Darunday, a 37-year-old tour operator in the central island province of Bohol, who was hunkered down at home with his family when the storm ripped off the roof.
“It was very strong. The last time I experienced something like this was back in the 1980s,” Darunday said.
People in the city of Cebu cleared fallen trees, branches and debris from roads as clean-up efforts got under way.
Verified photos taken in nearby Lapu-Lapu city showed roadside buildings flattened by the storm, while sheets of corrugated iron roofing and branches littered streets.
A building and gym belonging to the Philippine Red Cross in the central province of Southern Leyte were badly damaged, with part of the roof torn off, photos posted by the organisation on Twitter showed.
Caritas Philippines, whose rapid assessment teams are already hard at work in affected areas, has also been issuing calls for assistance via its Facebook page and its website at: https://bit.ly/3273nPX
“We cannot imagine the devastation. It pains me to see the suffering,” said Bishop Abet Uy of the Diocese of Tagbilaran, on December 19.
Typhoon Rai hit the Philippines late in the typhoon season, with most cyclones usually developing between July and October.
The deadliest typhoon on record in the Philippines was Haiyan [locally known as Yolanda], which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.
