Typhoon Rai, one of the most powerful to hit the Philippines in recent years, has claimed at least 388 lives, according to a new report released by the Civil Defense Bureau on Monday (December 27th). Hundreds of people have been injured and around 60 are still missing.
On December 16 and 17, the typhoon, accompanied by winds that reached 195 km / h, sowed death and desolation in the center and south of the archipelago, tearing roofs, electricity poles and trees in its path. Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless overnight and some 300,000 people are still in evacuation camps. In 430 towns and villages, where some 482,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed, more than four million people are receiving aid, the civil defense office said.
As the government transported food, water and clothing to the devastated areas, a new threat has emerged in recent days: at least 140 people have fallen ill from possibly contaminated water.
In the southern province of Dinagat Islands, 80 people have been diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis, while 54 people are being treated for diarrhea at the hospital on the neighboring tourist island of Siargao, said the Under Secretary of Health. , Maria Rosario Vergeire. Cebu City has also reported 16 cases of diarrhea. These areas suffered a water supply cut-off, and pipes were damaged. “So there is a possibility of contamination”, has explained Maria Rosario Vergeire.
According to data from his ministry, the typhoon also damaged more than 4,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and devastated 141 hospitals and clinics, only 30 of which have resumed operations. The Philippines, ranked among the countries most exposed to climate change, is swept by nearly twenty tropical storms or typhoons each year, which typically destroy crops, homes and infrastructure in already poor regions.