adminMANILA/WASHINGTON. – The number of people confirmed killed when a super typhoon devastated the Philippines surpassed 5 200 yesterday, the government said, making it one of the country’s deadliest natural disasters. The official death toll from the storm jumped by nearly 1 200 to 5 209, with another 1 611 people still missing, the spokesman for the government’s disaster management council, Reynaldo Balido, told AFP.
Super Typhoon Haiyan flattened dozens of towns across the central Philippines on November 8, bringing some of the strongest winds ever recorded and generating tsunami-like storm surges. Balido said the death toll rose sharply yesterday, increasing from 4 015, after officials reported body counts from communities outside the worst-hit areas.
“If you notice, there was not much movement in the death toll for the past few days.
“This was because the reporting rules required a casualty report signed by the city mayor and his health officer,” he said.
“Now, the reports are coming in from the entire typhoon area.”
Meanwhile, the World Bank yesterday added US$480 million in emergency aid to the Philippines, taking to nearly US$1 billion its support as the death toll from super typhoon Haiyan passed 5 200.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim made the pledge, added to US$500 million committed on Monday, in a phone call with Philippine President Benigno Aquino, the development lender said.
The Bank has already deployed disaster specialists to Manila to help the government assess the damages and identify rebuilding priorities in the wake of the storm, which blasted through the centre of the country on November 8, flattening entire communities and leaving up to four million people displaced.
Early estimates by analysts of the typhoon’s economic cost to the Philippines have been put at around US$14 billion. –AFP.
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