A little over a month after Typhoon Rai (local name Odette) hit the Philippines, the United Nations says that the initial assessment of the destruction caused has been “badly underestimated”, with the number of people “seriously affected” rising to 9 million.
Typhoon Rai, which ravaged the southern and central regions of the Philippines on 16 and 17 December, was the second-deadliest disaster last year after the earthquake in Haiti. The storm swept through 11 of the country’s 17 regions, leaving a swathe of destruction. It damaged houses and roads, tore down power lines, destroyed trees and crops, and smashed fishing boats to pieces. The Government declared a state of calamity in six regions.
UN Resident Coordinator in the Philippines Gustavo Gonzalez said on Thursday the target would be revised after more than 66 field assessments showed the destruction was far worse than initially thought. “One month since the first landfall of Super Typhoon Rai we realize that we have badly underestimated the scale of devastation,” Gonzalez told a virtual briefing.
He said more than 1.5 million houses were damaged or destroyed in the storm – almost a third more than in 2013’s Super Typhoon Haiyan. The number of people affected has grown 3 times to 3 million now from his briefing on 21 December. In terms of destroyed homes, the number has increased 7 times from 200,000 to over 1.5 million, which is more than that of Haiyan. In terms of casualties, the first assessment of 177 deaths has grown to 405 now.
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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2022-01/philippines-typhoon-rai-un-revises-scale-destruction.html