At least 115 people have been killed or missing in massive floods and landslides in the Philippines

TALISAY – Number of people killed and missing as a result of massive floods and landslides Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has surpassed 100, and the president said Saturday that many areas remain isolated from people needing help.

Trami barreled in from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 81 people dead and 34 others missing in one of the deadliest and most destructive storms to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago so far this year, the government’s disaster response agency said. natural disasters. The death toll was expected to rise as reports came in from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, aided by three excavators and sniffer dogs, on Saturday unearthed one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay, Batangas province.

A father who was waiting for news about his missing 14-year-old daughter cried as rescuers placed the remains in a black body bag. Distraught, he followed police officers who were carrying a mud-covered body bag down a village lane to a police van when one of the tearful residents approached him to express her sympathy.

The man said he was sure it was his daughter, but authorities had to carry out checks to confirm the identity of the villager dug into the mound.

In a nearby downtown basketball gym, a dozen white coffins were laid side by side, carrying the remains of those found in piles of mud, boulders and trees that cascaded down the steep slope of a forested ridge in the village of Sampaloc in Talisay on Thursday afternoon.

President Ferdinand Marcos, who was inspecting another hardest-hit region southeast of Manila on Saturday, said the unusually large amount of rainfall caused by the storm – including in some areas that received one to two months of rainfall in just 24 hours – exceeded flood control. in the provinces flogged by Trami.

“There was just too much water,” Marcos told reporters.

“We are not finished with our rescue operation yet,” he said. “Our problem is that there are still many areas that remain flooded and cannot be reached even by large trucks.”

Marcos said his administration plans to begin work on a major flood control project that could address the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.

The government agency said more than 4.2 million people were in the storm’s path, including nearly half a million who mostly fled to more than 6,400 shelters in several provinces.

At an emergency meeting, Cainet Marcos expressed concern over reports from government forecasters that the storm – the 11th to hit the Philippines this year – could make a U-turn next week as it is forced out by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea.

The storm was forecast to hit Vietnam over the weekend if it did not veer off course.

The Philippine government closed schools and government offices for a third time on Friday to ensure the safety of millions of people on the main northern island of Luzon. Ferry services between the islands were also suspended, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

The weather improved in many areas on Saturday, allowing cleanup work to take place in most areas.

Every year approx 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines, an archipelago in Southeast Asia, located between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. In 2013 Typhoon Haiyanone of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, left over 7,300 people dead or missing and razed entire villages to the ground.