300 dead, 2,000 missing in Philippines town

Manila – Typhoon ‘Haiyan’ (local name Yolands) has claimed 300 lives, and 2,000 other people are reported missing in one town alone, an official in the typhoon-hit Philippines Leyte province said Sunday.

Leo Dacaynos, chief of the Eastern Samar Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Council, said they have already accounted for 300 people dead in Basey town alone, where 2,000 were missing, reported Xinhua.

Western Visayas police head Agrimero Cruz said he has counted 37 deaths in the region.

But the official tally from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council showed that 151 people have died in the region from the wrath of the super typhoon.

Of the official toll, 118 came from the worst-hit Leyte province, 16 died in Eastern Samar, particularly in Hernani town, the NDRRMC said.

‘Haiyan’, the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines on record, leaves the country for the South China Sea Saturday afternoon.

Earlier reports Saturday said more than 1,200 people were feared dead in the Philippines after the super typhoon left a trail of destruction across the country.

“An estimated more than 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban. In Samar, about 200 deaths. Validation is ongoing,” said Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross.