Ted Aljibe / AFP - Getty Images

Residents rest under an uprooted tree used as shelter Thursday, Dec. 13, in New Bataan in Compostela province, 10 days after Typhoon Bopha roared through the Philippines.

Typhoon Bopha killed more than 900 people and left almost 80,000 others homeless in the Philippines, the government said Thursday, a week and a half after the storm devastated large parts of the southeast Asian island nation.

The death toll, which the government set Thursday at 902, is likely to rise significantly, as 934 other people remained unaccounted for. More than 2,600 people were injured.

"I am saddened and bothered by the devastation brought about by Typhoon Pablo," President Benigno Aquino III said, using the name the storm was given locally. "But it is in situations like this that our strength as a nation is measured. We will rise as one nation again."

Bopha tore through the main southern island of Mindanao on Dec. 3 before crossing the central Philippines and stalling over the South China Sea. Most of the deaths were in the Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental province on Mindanao.

Ten days later, almost 80,000 people remained in evacuation centers scattered across the islands, because Bopha destroyed 61,000 homes and seriously damaged 88,000 others, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported.

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The United Nations issued a worldwide appeal for $65 million in aid for the Philippines, where the storm caused damage of more than 14.3 billion pesos — about $350 million. 

Aquino said his government was drawing up plans for forced relocation of entire communities that are within "geohazard" areas mapped out by the national mining bureau. 

"The communities will be moved to safer areas," he said, according to the Philippines Daily Inquirer. "In certain instances, we really can't wait for all the consultations to be over before we transfer them."

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Rolex Dela Pena / EPA

Philippine Navy personnel load coffins on to the BRP Laguna, which is set to transport relief supplies to typhoon-affected areas, from a navy base in Cavite City, south of Manila, on Tuesday.

The United Nations has appealed for $65 million in emergency aid for millions of victims of Typhoon Bopha in the southern Philippines, where at least 714 people were killed as muddy floodwaters washed out entire villages. 

-- European Pressphoto Agency

Rolex Dela Pena / EPA

Related content:

• Nearly 900 left missing by Typhoon Bopha
• Aerial photos reveal damage from Typhoon Bopha
• Death toll over 500 in the Philippines following typhoon
• Typhoon Bopha leaves hundreds dead in the Philippines
• Super Typhoon Bopha hits the Philippines with 160 mph winds, 40 dead or missing
• Typhoon Bopha stirs awe from space

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Erik De Castro / Reuters

Smoke rises from the devastation caused at the height of Typhoon Bopha in the coastal town of Boston, Davao Oriental in southern Philippines on Dec. 10. Typhoon Bopha killed 647 people and caused crop damage worth $210 million. The most intense storm to hit the Philippines this year wiped out about 90 percent of three coastal towns in Davao Oriental province and buried an entire town in neighboring Compostela Valley province under mud.

The Associated Press reports -- The number of people missing after a typhoon devastated the Philippines jumped to nearly 900 after families and fishing companies reported losing contact with more than 300 fishermen at sea, officials said.

The fishermen from southern General Santos city and nearby Sarangani province left a few days before Typhoon Bopha hit the main southern island of Mindanao on Tuesday, Civil Defense chief Benito Ramos said. The death toll has already surpassed 600, mostly from flash floods that wiped away precarious communities in the southern region unaccustomed to typhoons.

Rescuers were searching for bodies or signs of life under tons of fallen trees and boulders in the worst-hit town of New Bataan, where rocks, mud and other rubble destroyed landmarks, making it doubly difficult to search places where houses once stood. Read the full story.

Leonito Navales / Philippine National Police-PIO Photo Office via Reuters

Police and rescuers conduct search and retrieval operations underneath the debris for typhoon victims who were swept away by floodwaters at the height of Typhoon Bopha in New Bataan town, Compostela Valley, southern Philippines on Dec. 10.

Erik De Castro / Reuters

Children look out from a window of a roofless house, destroyed at the height of Typhoon Bopha in the coastal town of Boston, Davao Oriental in southern Philippines on Dec. 10.

Erik De Castro / Reuters

Residents sift through their clothes on the ruins of a house destroyed at the height of Typhoon Bopha in the coastal town of Boston, Davao Oriental in southern Philippines on Dec. 10.

Erik De Castro / Reuters

Typhoon victims sit at the entrance of a tent with a coffin of a relative, who died after a coconut tree fell on him at the height of Typhoon Bopha, in Montevista town, Compostela Valley in southern Philippines on Dec. 9.

Related content:

• Aerial photos reveal damage from Typhoon Bopha
• Death toll over 500 in the Philippines following typhoon
• Typhoon Bopha leaves hundreds dead in the Philippines
• Super Typhoon Bopha hits the Philippines with 160 mph winds, 40 dead or missing
• Typhoon Bopha stirs awe from space

GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains graphic images which some viewers may find disturbing. 

Erik De Castro / Reuters

Residents clean their sofa outside their destroyed house after Typhoon Bopha hit Compostela Valley, southern Philippines, Dec. 5.

Erik De Castro / Reuters

Villagers wash their clothes amidst a destroyed banana plantation after Typhoon Bopha hit Compostela Valley, southern Philippines Dec. 5.

Karlos Manlupig / AFP - Getty Images

Residents walk amongst their destroyed houses after Typhoon Bopha hit Compostela town, Compostela Valley province, in southern island of Mindanao on Dec. 4.

Erik De Castro / Reuters

A villager walks on rope across water flooding over a destroyed road following typhoon Bopha in Compostela Valley, southern Philippines Dec. 5.

Karlos Manlupig / AFP - Getty Images

Relatives try to identify bodies in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in New Bataan, Compostela Valley in the southern Philippines on Dec. 5.

Karlos Manlupig / AP

Relatives grieve as they view bodies recovered from floods in New Bataan, Dec. 5.

Reuters reports: MANILA, Philippines -- The death toll from the Philippines' strongest typhoon this year rose on Wednesday to around 230, with hundreds missing in landslides and floodwaters, as the storm continued its destructive path across the island nation.

Typhoon Bopha, with central winds of 75 mph and gusts of up to 93 mph, battered beach resorts and dive spots in northern Palawan on Wednesday, but there was little damage as the storm began to weaken.

Hardest hit were the coastal, farming and mining towns in the southern Mindanao region, where Bopha made landfall on Tuesday, destroying homes, causing landslides and flash flooding and killing at least 230 people. Continue reading...