MANILA, Philippines—More than half of the latest 2,357 death toll from the supertyphoon that damaged infrastructure and agricultural products worth P4 billion came from Leyte and Samar, the two worst hit areas by one of the strongest typhoons in history.
Out of the total fatalities, 1,785 bodies were recovered in Leyte alone and a combined count of 372 in Eastern Samar and Samar province, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Thursday.
As of 6 a.m., the number of injured was raised to 3,853 while 77 were still missing.
Disaster mitigation officials raised the number of people affected to 8 million persons or 1,732,477 families living in 8,819 barangay (villages) in 43 provinces, 520 municipalities and 54 cities.
The displaced persons who sought shelter in evacuation centers reached 534,343 people (112,962 families) after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) damaged 236,989 houses.
Of the P4,060,044,079.13 total estimated physical destruction wrought by Yolanda which lashed Central Visayas on Friday, rice, corn and high value crops in the affected areas incurred the highest amount of damage at P2 billion.
In the latest report of NDRRMC, P51-million worth of relief assistance was provided to the affected families in by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, nongovernment organizations and the areas’ respective Local Government Units.
AFP FILE PHOTO
The report detailed that 17,460 personnel, 830 vehicles, 44 sea craft, 30 aircrafts were prepositioned and deployed to various strategic areas to facilitate response operations.
As of Wednesday, all airports controlled by Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines were operational.
However, operations in Tacloban airport will still be limited due to massive damage brought by the storm surge in the Leyte province.
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