The powerful Typhoon Phanfone moved into the South China Sea on Thursday after battering the Philippines on Christmas.
The storm, known locally as Ursula, killed at least 20 people. Most of the deaths reported by officials were caused by drowning, falling trees and accidental electrocution, the Associated Press reported.
The typhoon made landfall in Eastern Samar province on Christmas Eve and then roared across the nation's central region on Christmas, slamming into seven coastal towns and island provinces in the predominantly Catholic country.
As the typhoon moved from island to island, electricity was knocked out, roofs were ripped from homes and tens of thousands of holiday travelers were stranded at seaports and airports.
The coast guard said Thursday that nearly 4,000 people remained stuck in Southern Tagalog and Western Visayas.
Popular tourist destinations remained cut off Thursday.
Jonathan Pablito, police chief of Malay town in Aklan province, said ferry services between Aklan and Boracay were still not operating on Thursday, AFP reported.
An airport at Kalibo town in Aklan that serves Boracay also was badly damaged.
"Roads remain blocked, but some efforts have been made to clear away the damage. It's pretty bad," Jung Byung-joon, a tourist from Korea, told AFP.
"Everything within 100 meters of the airport looks broken. There are a lot of frustrated people at the airport as flights have been canceled."
In Iloilo province, an official described the town of Batad as a "ghost town" on Wednesday.
"You can’t see anybody because there was a total blackout, you can’t hear anything. The town looked like a ghost town," Cindy Ferrer of the regional Office of the Civil Defense said by phone.
Video uploaded by the local government in San Jose town in Occidental Mindoro showed overturned fishing vessels and ruined shanties on the coast.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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