Typhoon Koppu killed 46 people in Philippines

By Roy Ramos

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines

Almost 50 people died, 82 were injured and five remain missing in the aftermath of the ferocious typhoon that churned out rains and strong winds, triggering floods and landslides across the Philippines this week.

On Friday, the Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council listed 46 people killed, and a total of 1,407,805 people affected by typhoon Koppu's onslaught, mostly from floods and landslides.

Of those affected, 108,688 remain sheltered in evacuation centers and 434,437 are scattered in different northern Philippines provinces.

Typhoon Koppu, packing winds up to 20 kilometers an hour, made landfall early Sunday in the remote town of Kasiguran, Aurora province, lashing northern Luzon with rains and strong winds until Oct. 25.

The report said that among the fatalities, six died from drowning, and two from electrocution. The rest were killed by collapsing walls and toppled trees.

The agency said the cyclone brought havoc to the country's agriculture industry, destroying crops and farms which caused P9.4 billion ($202 million) in damage.

It said power interruptions are still being experienced in five cities and 52 towns. 

Almost 100 roads and 11 bridges are still not useable as of Friday, while 751 schoolbuildings were destroyed by the typhoon, the 24th named storm of 2015 in the northwest Pacific Ocean and the 15th to reach typhoon strength.

The Philippines suffers around 20 typhoons and storms each year, many of them deadly.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan -- one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded -- struck the country’s central islands, leaving more than 8,000 people dead, missing and injured.