The death toll rose to 5,235 in the Philippines from the strongest typhoon to make landfall, with 1,613 missing, the government said Saturday, according to dpa. Authorities fear the death toll from Typhoon Haiyan would still spike as rescue teams find more bodies while clearing debris from the November 8 storm. Most of the fatalities - 4,919 people - were from the Eastern Visayas region which bore the brunt of the storm's fury, with cities and towns flattened. Another 316 were killed in central and southern provinces also battered by Haiyan, according to the national disaster relief agency. More than 4.2 million people were displaced by the typhoon, which destroyed or damaged more than 1 million houses. Damage to infrastructure and agriculture has been estimated to be at least 22.47 billion pesos (522.55 million dollars). The government and international donors launched a massive relief effort to help the affected people, and authorities said Friday that the aid response was improving. But UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos stressed that the relief effort must be sustained, and announced that a flash appeal for aid was raised from 301 million dollars to 348 million dollars. "Much more needs to be done," she said in New York. "Families who have lost their homes will need substantial longer-term support from the international community to ensure they have the means to rebuild their houses." Amos also expressed concern that 1.5 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition and narly 800,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers need nutritional help. "People living with chronic disease, and other vulnerable groups, need medication and specialist care," she added. The government created a task force to oversee the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the affected areas. It plans to submit a supplemental budget of 14 billion pesos for the programme. On Friday, the World Bank offered 480 million dollars in additional financial assistance for the reconstruction effort. It earlier announced a 500-million-dollar emergency loan for rehabilitation. The Asian Development Bank said it was prepared to provide 500 million dollars in emergency loan for the reconstruction, while the European Union pledged 10 million dollars to help rehabilitate devastated communities.
