UN says Philippine typhoon destruction 'badly underestimated'
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations said destruction caused
by Typhoon Rai in the Philippines had been "badly underestimated" in
initial assessments, tripling the number of people "seriously
affected" to 9 million.
A UN campaign to raise US$107.2 million in aid for victims
was launched a week after the storm ravaged southern and central regions of the
archipelago on Dec 16, leaving 406 people dead and hundreds of thousands
homeless.
But UN Resident Coordinator in the Philippines Gustavo
Gonzalez said Thursday (Jan 20) 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 realise that we have badly underestimated the scale of
devastation," Gonzalez told a virtual briefing.
More than 1.5 million houses were damaged or destroyed in
the storm - almost a third more than in 2013's Super Typhoon Haiyan - Gonzalez
said, adding more resources were "badly needed".
Only 40 per cent of the funds had been received, Gonzalez
said, calling for solidarity with the Philippines to avoid the typhoon becoming
a "forgotten crisis".
Typhoon-hit areas already struggling with COVID-19, poverty, and malnutrition had seen their economies "literally flattened".
"This is a very fragile region," he said.
Humanitarian groups have been working with the government to
distribute food packs, drinking water, tents, and materials to rebuild houses.
But the scale of the disaster, lack of power and
communications in some areas, and depleted government coffers after the
COVID-19 response have hampered efforts to distribute aid.
An Omicron-fuelled surge in infections is also forcing
relief workers into isolation and making travel more difficult.
Persistent rain in the region was adding to the misery,
Gonzalez said.
"We are talking about a crisis within a crisis,"
he said.
Rai, the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines last year,
intensified faster than expected, officials said previously.
Scientists have long warned that typhoons are strengthening
more rapidly as the world becomes warmer because of human-driven climate change.
The Philippines - ranked among the most vulnerable nations
to its impacts - is hit by an average of 20 storms every year.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan was the strongest storm ever to have
made landfall, leaving over 7,300 people dead or missing.
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