Photos: Typhoon Rai leaves a trail of destruction in the Philippines, nearly 100,000 evacuated

AFTERMATH: An areal view of Loboc in the Province of Bohol after Typhoon Rai dumped more than 5 hours of heavy rains and brought strong winds, which felled trees, damaged houses, knocked down power lines in the province, limiting communications. Local media reports say many families are still waiting for rescue.

SEVERE DAMAGE: Residents walk past an uprooted tree, downed by inclement weather from Typhoon Odette, along a road in Naga town in Cebu province on Dec. 17, 2021, a day after the typhoon hit the province.

FELLED TREE: Local residents reported severe damage left by Rai, especially in the Visayas. A tree damaged a house after being felled by Rai's strong winds.

RAMPAGE: Roads blocked by felled trees getting cleared. Typhoon Rai's aftermath in Magsaysay, Palawan, Philippines.

FLATTENED: A house flattened by strong winds brought by super typhoon Rai in the Philippines on Friday.

ACCESS BLOCKED: Some of the trees fell on houses, schools and on the streets, temporarily blocking access. Road clearing operations started immediately after Typhoon Rai left a trail of destruction.

CLEARING OPERATIONS: Around 3am Friday (December 17, 2021), Magsaysay, Palawan was also devastated by what residents call “one of the strongest” windstorms they experienced in recent years.

INUNDATED: Flood-affected residents being evacuated from their homes next to a swollen river in Cagayan de Oro city on southern Mindanao island. A powerful typhoon slammed into the southeastern Philippines on Thursday and was blowing across island provinces where nearly 100,000 people have been evacuated from high-risk areas that could be devastated by flash floods, landslides and tidal surges.

RESCUE: Typhoon Rai, which had sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 230 kph, blew from the Pacific Ocean into the Siargao Islands. | Above: Rescuers assists residents ride a rubber boat along floodwaters as they are evacuated to higher grounds in Cagayan de Oro City.

FAST-RISING WATERS: Military and coast guard rescue personnel helping residents stranded by fast-rising waters.

DESTRUCTIVE PATH: Disaster-response officials said about 10,000 villages lie in the projected path of the typhoon, which has a 400-kilometer (248-mile)-wide rain band and is one of the strongest to hit the country this year.

GROUNDED: The Philippine coast guard said it has grounded all vessels, stranding nearly 4,000 passengers and ferry and cargo ship workers in dozens of southern and central ports. Several mostly domestic flights have been canceled and schools and workplaces were shut in the most vulnerable areas.

EVACUATED: More than 98,000 people have been evacuated to safety, the government's disaster-response agency said. Crowding in evacuation centers was complicating efforts to keep people safely distanced after authorities detected the country's first infections caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Intensified vaccinations were also halted in provinces likely to experience stormy weather.

The Philippines is among the hardest-hit in Southeast Asia by the pandemic, with confirmed infections of more than 2.8 million and more than 50,000 deaths. Gov. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar province said he suspended vaccinations in his region of nearly half a million people due to the typhoon.

Overcrowding is unavoidable, he said, in the limited number of evacuation centers in his province, where more than 32,000 people have been moved to safety.

"It's impossible to observe social distancing, it will really be tough," said Evardone. "What we do is we cluster evacuees by families. We don't mix different people in the same place as a precaution."

About 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines each year. The archipelago is also located in the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire" region, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.