The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Xangsane, locally known as Milenyo, rose to 197 while at least 22 other people remained missing, local media reports said Wednesday.

The industrial belt south of Metro Manila was worst hit by the storm, with at least 154 killed in five provinces of Southern Luzon.

The typhoon, the strongest to hit Metro Manila in a decade, has also displaced 1.33 million people and blacked out Luzon for days leaving millions of people in the dark. The storm has also destroyed 146,000 houses and tens of thousands of hectares of farmland while sending 171,000 people to evacuation centers.

Meanwhile, another storm, Bebinca, locally known as Neneng, changed course and was heading toward Japan by Wednesday morning, said Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). But Bebinca has been bringing rains to eastern Luzon, Western Visayas and Mindanao since Monday.

In Metro Manila power has been 99 percent restored, the Manila Electric Co. (MERALCO) said Tuesday.

But some parts of the capital region were still without electricity Wednesday morning, including the city's biggest thoroughfare of EDSA in Quezon City.

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza has assured residents that the city government was doing all it could to bring things back to normal.

Commodity prices rose slightly in the aftermath of the typhoon in markets, but no public panic was seen. But while prices for meat and chicken remained stable, those of vegetables are expected to increase within the week owing to hard-hit agricultural areas in the country, said government officials.

Source: Xinhua