Philippines Flooding and Landslides Leave at Least 126 Dead or Missing

The number of fatalities and missing persons due to severe flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Trami has reached almost 130. The president stated on Saturday that numerous areas remain isolated, with people in need of rescue.

Trami moved away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, resulting in at least 85 deaths and 41 missing individuals, making it one of the deadliest and most destructive storms to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago this year, according to the government’s disaster-response agency. The death toll is expected to rise as reports arrive from previously inaccessible areas.

Dozens of police officers, firefighters, and other emergency personnel, supported by three backhoes and sniffer dogs, searched for one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay, Batangas province, on Saturday.

A father, awaiting news of his missing 14-year-old daughter, wept as rescuers placed the remains in a black body bag. Overwhelmed with grief, he followed police officers carrying the body bag down a mud-filled village alley to a police van, where a weeping resident approached him to express her condolences.

The man expressed his certainty that the remains belonged to his daughter, but authorities required further verification to confirm the identity of the villager unearthed from the debris.

In a nearby basketball gym at the town center, over a dozen white coffins were lined up, containing the remains of those discovered amidst the mounds of mud, boulders, and trees that cascaded down the steep slope of a wooded ridge in Talisay’s Sampaloc village on Thursday afternoon.

, who inspected another severely affected region southeast of Manila on Saturday, explained that the unusually heavy rainfall caused by the storm – including areas that received one to two months’ worth of rainfall in just 24 hours – overwhelmed flood control systems in provinces struck by Trami.

“The water was simply too much,” Marcos told reporters.

“Our rescue efforts are not yet complete,” he said. “Our challenge here is that many areas remain flooded and inaccessible, even to large trucks.”

Marcos stated that his administration would initiate work on a significant flood control project designed to address the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.

More than 5 million people were in the path of the storm, including nearly half a million who sought refuge in over 6,300 emergency shelters across several provinces, according to the government agency.

During an emergency Cabinet meeting, Marcos voiced concerns regarding reports from government forecasters indicating that the storm – the 11th to hit the Philippines this year – could potentially reverse course next week due to high-pressure winds in the South China Sea.

The storm is predicted to impact Vietnam over the weekend if it does not change direction.

The Philippine government closed schools and government offices for the third consecutive day on Friday to ensure the safety of millions of people on the main northern island of Luzon. Interisland ferry services were also suspended, stranding thousands.

Weather conditions improved in many areas on Saturday, allowing for cleanup operations in most regions.

Every year, approximately 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines, a Southeast Asian archipelago situated between the Pacific Ocean and . In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, resulted in over 7,300 deaths or missing persons and devastated entire villages.

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