Typhoon affects Xmas celebrations in Philippines

A woman carries her son over debris from their damaged house due to Typhoon Rai in Cebu city, central Philippines on Christmas Day. Pic/AP

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Philippines, Asia's largest Roman Catholic nation, marked Christmas on Saturday without homes, adequate food and water, electricity and cellphone connections after a powerful typhoon left at least 375 people dead last week and devastated mostly central island provinces.

Before Typhoon Rai hit on December 16, millions of Filipinos were trooping back to shopping malls, public parks and churches after an alarming spike in infections in September eased considerably. Gov. Arthur Yap of hard-hit Bohol province, where more than 100 people died in the typhoon and about 1,50,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, asked foreign aid agencies on Saturday to help provide temporary shelters and water-filtration systems to supplement Philippine government aid.

"I refuse to believe that there's no Christmas spirit today among our people. They're conservative Catholics. But it's obviously very muted. There is overwhelming fear, there are no gifts, there were no Christmas Eve dinners, there is none of that today," Yap told The Associated Press. Yap said he was happy that many Filipinos could celebrate Christmas more safely after Covid-19 cases dropped, but he pleaded, "Please don't forget us."

In Manila, which was not hit by the typhoon, Filipino Catholics were relieved to be able to return to churches on Christmas, although only a fraction were allowed inside and worshippers were required to wear masks and stand at a safe distance from each other.

375
People dead and devastated, as per reports

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever