AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – A month after monster typhoon “Yolanda” (international name Haiyan) battered the Philippines, dead and missing persons neared 8,000, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on Monday.
In its Monday report, NDRRMC said the fatalities reached almost 6,000 – 5,924 to be exact.
Official number of missing persons remained at 1,779.
Local chief executives and health officers must first submit an official record before the number of newly recovered fatalities would be added to the NDRRMC list. This caused a slower death count.
In the immediate aftermath of “Yolanda”, President Benigno Aquino III downplayed in a CNN interview the estimated 10,000 deaths by a regional police officer.
The affected population from the torrential rains and powerful winds from “Yolanda,” the strongest storm to hit land, has reached 12.28 million. Of these, nearly four million remained in shelters.
The storm also destroyed 1,177,194 houses – 585,134 of which were completely destroyed.
Damage to property and agriculture was at P35 billion.