Over 2,000 Yolanda fatalities remain unidentified
Photo of the cadavers in body bags. Kristine Angeli Sabillo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines – Over 2,000 typhoon fatalities have remain unidentified in Tacloban City, more than three weeks after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” battered the regional economic center of Eastern Visayas and other coastal towns in the region.
In its latest advisory, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Sunday said a total of 108 fatalities from Guiuan, Eastern Samar and Matag-ob, Leyte, had been identified by their relatives.
The death toll from the deadly storm remain at 5,632, with 1,759 persons still missing.
Last week, retrieval teams from government agencies and volunteer organizations were still able to recover several bodies under the rubble, raising the possibility that the fatalities could reach 10,000 as previously mentioned by a police official.
The council said 26,136 individuals were injured when Yolanda brought powerful winds, which triggered violent storm surges as high as 7 meters.
The deadly combination of the tsunami-like waves and ferocious winds flattened seaside villages and inland communities located several kilometers from the coastline.
The NDRRMC said the cost of the typhoon’s damage increased to over P30.64 billion. In the agriculture sector alone, it said Yolanda destroyed more than P15 billion worth of farm products in seven regions.
It said a total of 2,376,217 families composed of 11,236,054 individuals were affected in 12,076 villages in 44 provinces and 57 cities in these areas.
The council said more than 4 million people had been displaced by the typhoon, which ruined a total of 1,168,958 houses.
Some 214,000 individuals were still staying in 1,070 evacuation centers while close to 3.9 million others still need government assistance outside of the relocation areas.
The government had provided more than P718 million in relief assistance, including over 2.1 million food packs.
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