The number of deaths from a powerful storm that hit the Philippines on Christmas has climbed to 41, authorities said Sunday , with tens of thousands still in evacuation centres .

Typhoon Phanfone left the Philippines on Saturday after devastating several islands in the central Visayas , including popular tourist destinations , but the extent of the damage continued to grow as assessments came in .

The death toll of 41 , up from 28 on Friday, included three boat crew who died after their vessel capsized due to strong winds, a policeman electrocuted by a toppled post , and a man struck by a felled tree .

“ We ’ re hoping that there will be no more fatalities , ” national disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal told AFP, with authorities still searching for 12 people missing .

The latest agency report showed over 1 . 6 million people were affected by the typhoon , which damaged over 260 , 000 houses and forced almost a hundred thousand people to flee to emergency shelters .

Many of the affected residents in the predominantly Catholic nation celebrated Christmas in evacuation centres , where they may have to stay until the New Year given the scale of destruction .

The government estimated that the storm has caused damage to agriculture and infrastructure worth $ 21 million .
Power lines and internet connections remain down in some areas after Phanfone ’ s powerful wind gusts of up to 200 kilometres ( 124 miles ) per hour toppled electric posts and trees.

Typhoon Phanfone , locally called Ursula , is the 21 st cyclone to hit the storm -prone Philippines, which is the first major landmass facing the Pacific typhoon belt .
Many of the storms are deadly , and they typically wipe out harvests , homes and infrastructure , keeping millions of people perennially poor .

Source:- Punchng.

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