Typhoon Rai in the Philippines: more than 400,000 displaced, NGOs call for help

Relief operations continued on Tuesday, December 21, to deliver food and water to the Philippine islands ravaged by Typhoon Rai, which killed at least 375 people.

Faced with the scale of the disaster, humanitarian organizations have launched appeals for help to come to the aid of the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless.

According to the national disaster management agency, more than 400,000 people have taken refuge in evacuation centers or with relatives after their homes were damaged or destroyed last Thursday by the most powerful typhoon to hit the country this year.

At least 375 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the southern and central regions of the archipelago, where the typhoon ripped roofs, uprooted trees, destroyed wooden houses and deprived entire towns of electricity.

“Our food stocks will be depleted soon, probably in a few days or tomorrow,” Simplicia Pedrablanca, mayor of a town on the Dinagat Islands, told local radio station DZBB.

One of the hardest-hit islands is Bohol, known for its beaches and scuba diving sites, where at least 96 people have died, provincial governor Arthur Yap said on Facebook.

Looting and blackouts

Arthur Yap said the province was strapped for cash and begged the government to send funds to provide clean water and food to families in distress.

“If you don’t send money to buy food, send soldiers and the police because there will be looting here,” Arthur Yap warned in an interview with DZBB radio.

As other parts of the country prepare to celebrate Christmas, the province “is in a situation similar to (the one that left her in) Yolanda,” he said, using Typhoon Haiyan’s local name of 2013, the deadliest the Philippines has ever seen, leaving more than 7,300 dead or missing.

On the nearby island of Negros, Carl Arapoc, 23, told AFP that there was no electricity and his family used driftwood for cooking.

Significant destruction was also recorded on the islands of Siargao, Dinagat and Mindanao, the most affected when the winds blew at 195 km per hour.

The deployed army

“It was really, really bad, the strongest storm I have ever seen in my life,” said Tal Oran, an Israeli living in the tourist town of Siargao, General Luna.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana ordered the military to deploy ships, boats, planes and trucks to deliver food, clean water and medical supplies to survivors.

The Red Cross is also sending aid to the islands of Siargao and Bohol, tourist destinations already struggling after eighteen months of anti-Covid restrictions.

“The IFRC’s emergency appeal helps us to act quickly and do all we can to help individuals and families get back on their feet,” said Alberto Bocanegra, head of the International Federation of Societies of the Cross. -Red and Red Crescent in the Philippines.

The organization launched an appeal for donations to raise 22 million dollars (19.5 million euros) for emergency and reconstruction aid.

The UK has pledged around $ 1 million to the IFRC, while Canada has pledged around $ 2.3 million in aid.

More and more powerful typhoons

On Monday, hundreds of residents of Surigao, at the northern end of Mindanao, gathered on a basketball court for a food distribution.

“Never in my life have I known such a typhoon,” Catholic bishop Antonieto Cabajog told Surigao to a Catholic news agency.

Rai is particularly late in the season, with most tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean forming between July and October.

Another storm could be on the way. The national meteorological agency warned that an area of ​​low pressure was moving towards Mindanao and had “a 30 to 40% chance of turning into a tropical depression.”

Scientists have long warned that typhoons get stronger and stronger as global warming accelerates.

The Philippines, ranked among the countries most exposed to climate change, is swept by nearly 20 tropical storms or typhoons each year which typically destroy crops, homes and infrastructure in already poor regions.

With AFP