Survivors of Typhoon Rai say they are running out of water and food as two people die of dehydration in Siargao island.
Two Filipinos who survived the devastation wrought by Typhoon Rai have died of dehydration, according to local media, as people in storm-ravaged areas pleaded for food and water and officials warned of potential looting in the absence of urgent humanitarian assistance.
The deaths on the hard-hit island of Siargao brought the typhoon’s toll to at least 392 on Tuesday.
According to the RMN Tacloban, the deaths occurred in the village of Dapa on Monday amid a shortage of clean water, days after Typhoon Rai first made landfall in the area. The radio station quoted health authorities as saying that the village urgently needs a generator as well as fuel to obtain clean water.
Rai, which struck the Philippines last Thursday, was the strongest typhoon to hit the archipelago this year. Aid workers in storm-affected areas have reported “complete carnage”, saying the typhoon has ripped homes, schools and hospitals to shreds.
Many areas remain cut off, with the storm having toppled power and telecommunication lines, hampering relief efforts.
On the island of Dinagat, Fely Pedrablanca, the mayor of Tubajon, said her town’s food supply was running low.
“Maybe in a few days, we will totally run out,” she said.
In Surigao del Norte, a province on the southern island of Mindanao, photos showed residents of Anahawan town carrying signs begging for financial aid to buy food.
The province’s disaster mitigation agency said 90 to 95 percent of the homes in the province had been damaged in some form and as many as 80 percent of residents were homeless.
In Bohol, Governor Arthur Yap said his province was also running low on supplies and that he could no longer secure rice and other food as his contingency fund had run out.
He said many of the 1.2 million people in his island province, which remained without power and mobile phone service five days after the typhoon struck, have become increasingly desperate.
Yap said the government’s social welfare department has promised to send 35,000 food packets, an inadequate amount for the province’s 375,000 families, but even those have not yet arrived.
In an interview on DZBB radio network, Yap thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for visiting his province over the weekend, but said, “If you would not send money for food, you should send soldiers and police, because if not, lootings will break out here.”
Yap said some incidents of looting, mostly of small merchandise stores, have already occurred.