Typhoon Rai death toll keeps climbing

The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year left behind power outages and communication blackouts as it moved into the South China Sea on Friday. Officials on Monday raised the death toll to 375, and more than 50 people are still missing.

What does the damage look like? Recovery efforts have begun, but only 21 areas have gotten the power back up after more than 200 cities and towns lost electricity. Communication gaps mean the death toll could climb as more information comes in from battered provinces. More than 400,000 people moved to emergency shelters as the storm came through. Rescue efforts picked up thousands of people in flooded villages, where residents climbed onto roofs and into trees as the waters rose.

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s report in The Sift about last year’s Typhoon Vamco.