Typhoon Phanfone death toll climbs to 28, Iloilo province hard hit

MANILA - At least 28 people have died after a powerful typhoon tore across central Philippines on Christmas Day, disaster response officials reported on Friday (Dec 27).

Twelve remained missing and two were injured, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council said.

Typhoon Phanfone, known locally as Ursula, devastated Christmas celebrations in this predominantly Catholic country.

It hit the Philippines on Christmas Eve with winds of up to 195kmh.

By Christmas, it was tearing off roofs, cutting off Internet and mobile phone networks, downing electric posts and knocking out power in nearly 150 cities and towns, and setting off landslides and storm surges that swept through many coastal districts.

The council said 13 of those who died were in hard-hit Iloilo province, in the Visayas region, which makes up the central third of the Philippines.

An entire family of six was found dead in Batad town, Iloilo. They were apparently swept away by floodwaters and drowned.

One disaster response officer described Batad as a "ghost town" on Christmas Day.

"You can't see anybody because there was a total blackout. You can't hear anything. The town looked like a ghost town," Ms Cindy Ferrer of the regional Office of the Civil Defence told the Associated Press.

There were also casualties reported in the provinces of Capiz, Aklan, Leyte, Biliran and Samar, and in Cebu City, all in the Visayas.

Most of the deaths reported by national police and local officials were due to drowning, falling trees and accidental electrocution.

On Thursday, Pope Francis offered prayers for those killed and displaced by Phanfone.

"I join in the pain that affected the dear people of the Philippines because of the typhoon Phanfone," he said.

The pontiff then asked the faithful gathered in St Peter's Square for his weekly Angelus prayer to join him in a prayer for the Philippines.

"I pray for the numerous victims, the wounded, and for their families," he said.

The storm weakened as it blew into the South China Sea with sustained winds of 120kmh and gusts of 150kmh.

Phanfone brought misery on a day usually celebrated with family reunions, feasts and dawn masses.

Tens of thousands were forced to leave their homes and spend Christmas in schools, gymnasiums and government buildings.

Around 20,000 travellers were stranded at airports and harbours.

Provincial officials, army troops, police and volunteers spent Christmas away from home to tend to thousands of displaced residents in town gyms and schools turned into emergency shelters.

Phanfone, a Laotian word for animal, cut through the same path as Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most destructive typhoons ever recorded that left more than 7,300 people dead and displaced over five million in November 2013.

The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt.

As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing scores of people and wiping out harvests, homes and other infrastructure, keeping millions perennially poor.

A study in July this year by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop 1 per cent off the Philippine economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly 3 per cent.