Hanoi (VNA) – The Philippine death toll fromTyphoon Rai has crossed the 400 mark, the disaster agencyღ said on December 31.

Officials in some hard-hit provinces appealed for moresupplies of food, water and shelter materials about two weeks after the stormstruck. Rai was the 15th and deadliest typhoon to hit the SoutheastAsian nation this year. Reported deaths had reached 405, mostly due to drowning,fallen trees and landslides, said Ricardo Jalad, chief of the national disasteragency. As many as 82 people were missing and 1,147 injured. More than 530,000 houses were damaged, a third of which weretotally wrecked, while damage to infrastructure and agriculture was estimatedat 23.4 billion PHP (459 million USD). The typhoon affected nearly 4.5 million people, includingabout 500,000 sheltering in evacuation centres, the Philippine government datashowed. It made landfall on December 16, and left a trail of destructionin the provinces of Bohol, Cebu, and Surigao del Norte, including the holidayisland of Siargao, and the Dinagat Islands. In central Philippine provinces, disaster and governmentofficials have been grappling with inadequate relief supplies for thousands ofresidents still without power and water. Rai's swath of destruction revived memories of typhoonHaiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, which killed6,300 people in the Philippines in 2013./.