More than 200 people have died as a result of the typhoon that hit the Philippines.

Officials reported Monday that the death toll from the worst storm to hit the Philippines this year has risen to more than 200, with 52 people still missing and numerous central towns and provinces coping with downed communications and power outages and asking for food and water.

Before it blew out Friday into the South China Sea, the typhoon had sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 270 kilometers per hour.

According to the national police, at least 208 persons were killed, 52 were still missing, and 239 were injured. The death toll was anticipated to rise as some towns and villages remained cut off from the rest of the country due to destroyed communications, power outages, and congested highways, despite enormous clean-up and restoration activities beginning thanks to the improved weather.

Many people perished as a result of collapsing trees or buildings, drowning in flash floods, or being buried alive by landslides. According to police, a 57-year-old male was discovered hanging from a tree branch in Negros Occidental province, while a woman was swept away by the wind and perished in the same hard-hit area.

Governor Arlene Bag-ao of the Dinagat Islands, one of the first southeastern provinces to be hit by the typhoon, said Rai’s ferocity was worse than Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful and deadliest typhoons on record, which devastated the central Philippines in November 2013 but did not cause any casualties in Dinagat.

“If it was like being in a washing machine before, this time it was like a gigantic monster that smashed itself everywhere, grabbed anything like trees and tin roofs, and then tossed them everywhere,” Bag-ao said over the phone to The Associated Press. “For six hours, the wind swung north to south, east to west, north to south, east to west, north to east, east to west, north to east, east to west, Some of the tin roof sheets were blown away and then thrown back.”

At least 14 villagers were killed, and over 100 others were injured by flying tin roofs, debris, and glass shards, according to Bag-ao, who were treated in makeshift operation rooms in damaged Dinagat hospitals. She believes that many more people would have perished if thousands of people had not been evacuated from high-risk communities before the typhoon struck.

Dinagat, like several other typhoon-affected provinces, remained without power and communications, and many citizens in the province, where most houses and structures had their roofs ripped off, required construction materials, food, and water. Bag-ao and other provincial officials sought aid and coordinated recovery operations with the national government in surrounding districts with mobile coverage.

The storm wreaked havoc on central island regions, displacing over 700,000 people, including over 400,000 who were forced to seek refuge in emergency shelters. Thousands of people were rescued by police, military, and the coast guard, including in the riverside village of Loboc in the hard-hit Bohol province, where residents were stuck on roofs and trees to escape rising floodwaters.

Officials said emergency teams were working to restore electricity and cellular service in at least 227 cities and towns, as well as three regional airports.

Bag-ao and other authorities voiced fear that their provinces might run out of gasoline, which was in high demand due to the usage of temporary power generators, such as those utilized in refrigerated warehouses where significant quantities of coronavirus vaccine stockpiles were held. Officials delivered vaccine shipments to various provinces in preparation for a stepped-up immunization campaign, which had been postponed owing to the typhoon last week.

Pope Francis expressed his love for the people of the Philippines on Sunday at the Vatican, referring to the storm “that damaged many homes.”

The Philippines, which situated between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons each year. The Southeast Asian archipelago is also located on the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire,” making it one of the most disaster-prone countries on the planet.