MANILA: The death toll is still rising and hundreds of thousands of homes are without power five days after Typhoon Rammasun’s rampage through the Philippines, authorities said on Monday.

Reports of fatalities from the typhoon, which struck the archipelago on July 16, continued to come in from isolated areas, bringing the number of dead to 97, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement.

Officials have said most were killed by falling trees and debris or knocked down by the storm’s powerful winds. Six people, most of them fishermen who went out to sea, also remained missing, the council said.

The Department of Energy said power had been restored to many areas but about 280,000 households in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces were still without electricity.

Other provinces that felt the storm’s fury also had only partial electrical service as power companies struggled to repair tens of thousands of toppled electrical poles, said department spokeswoman May Militante. —AFP

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2014