manila the governor of an island province in the central philippines said sunday at least 63 people died in the devastation wrought by typhoon rai in more than half of the towns that managed to contact him bringing the death toll in the strongest typhoon to batter the country this year to at least 137gov arthur yap of bohol province said 10 others were missing and 13 injured and suggested the fatalities may still considerably increase with only 33 out of 48 mayors able to report back to him due to downed communications officials were trying to confirm a sizable number of deaths caused by landslides and extensive flooding elsewherein statements posted on facebook yap ordered mayors in his province of more than 12 million people to invoke their emergency powers to secure food packs for large numbers of people along with drinking water both have been urgently sought in several hardhit townsafter joining a military aerial survey of typhoonravaged towns yap said it is very clear that the damage sustained by bohol is great and allencompassinghe said the initial inspection did not cover four towns where the typhoon blew in as it rampaged through central island provinces on thursday and friday the government said about 780000 people were affected including more than 300000 residents who had to evacuate their homesat least 64 other typhoon deaths were reported by the disasterresponse agency the national police and local officials officials on dinagat islands one of the southeastern provinces first pounded by the typhoon separately reported 10 deaths just from a few towns bringing the overall fatalities so far to 137president rodrigo duterte flew to the region saturday and promised 2 billion pesos 40 million in aid he met officials in maasin city in southern leyte province where he was born dutertes family later relocated to the southern city of davao where he served as a longtime mayor before rising to the presidencythe moment i was born into this world i told my mother lets not stay here because this place is really prone to typhoons duterte told officialsat its strongest the typhoon packed sustained winds of 195 kilometers 121 miles per hour and gusts of up to 270 kph 168 mph making it one of the most powerful in recent years to hit the disasterprone archipelago which lies between the pacific ocean and the south china seafloodwaters rose rapidly in bohols riverside town of loboc where residents were trapped on their roofs and in trees they were rescued by the coast guard the following day on dinagat islands an official said the roofs of nearly all the houses including emergency shelters were either damaged or blown away entirelyat least 227 cities and towns lost electricity which has since been restored in only 21 areas officials said adding that three regional airports were damaged including two that remain closedthe deaths and widespread damage left by the typhoon ahead of christmas in the largely roman catholic nation brought back memories of the catastrophe