At least 33 people have been killed by the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, the country’s authorities said on Saturday (December 18th), citing “alarming” destruction on the islands which have suffered the most from the sea. storm.
More than 300,000 people have had to flee their homes since Thursday due to the typhoon that devastated the south and center of the country, according to the National Agency for Natural Disasters of the Philippines.
Rai was described as a “super-typhoon” when it made landfall Thursday, on the tourist island of Siargao, accompanied by winds of 195km / h. The next day, Friday, the wind speed had dropped to 155km / h, according to the Philippine Meteorological Agency. He crossed the northern part of Palawan Island, a popular tourist destination, at the end of the afternoon on Friday, before heading towards the South China Sea, heading for Vietnam.
Aerial photos shared by the military showed extensive damage in the town of General Luna, where many surfers and vacationers had flocked before Christmas, with buildings without roofs and debris littering the ground.
About twenty typhoons each year
The neighboring island of Dinagat was “wiped out” by the storm, Governor Arlene Bag-ao wrote on Facebook, adding that houses, boats and fields had been destroyed.
More than 18,000 soldiers, police, coastguard and firefighters will join search and rescue efforts in the most affected regions.
Most tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean form between July and October. Scientists have long warned that typhoons are getting stronger and stronger as man-made global warming accelerates.
The Philippines, considered one of the countries most vulnerable to global warming, is struck each year by around 20 typhoons which often wreak havoc on homes, crops and infrastructure in already very poor regions.
The deadliest cyclone on record in the Philippines is “super-typhoon” Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 dead or missing in 2013.
