Philippines: Homeowners in the northern Philippines used shovels and shovels to remove debris left behind by Tropical Storm Trami on Friday as rescuers searched for missing people in thick mud as the death toll rose to 76.
Tens of thousands of people were displaced due to floods sparked by torrential rains that caused two months of rain over just two days in some areas.
“Many are still trapped on the roofs of their homes and are calling for help,” said Andre Dizon, police chief in the hard-hit Bicol region. Agence France-Presse.
He added, “We hope that the floods will recede today after the rains stop.”
President Ferdinand Marcos said accessibility remained a major issue for rescuers on Friday, especially in Bicol.
“This is the problem we have with Bicol, which is difficult to penetrate,” he said, adding that the highly saturated ground had led to “landslides in areas that had never seen landslides before.”
Two months worth of rain
Government offices and schools across the main island of Luzon remained closed on Friday, but storm warnings along the west coast were canceled as my tram flew farther out to sea.
Guvrin Habaloyas, a specialist at the government meteorological agency, said Agence France-Presse Batangas province experienced “two months” of rain, or 391.3 mm, on October 24 and 25.
An official toll said late Thursday that nearly 320,000 people had been evacuated in the face of floods that turned streets into rivers and buried half of towns in volcanic sludge-like deposits resulting from the storm.
Rescuers in Naga City and Nabua Municipality used boats to reach residents stranded on rooftops, many of whom requested help via Facebook posts.
The local disaster office announced that the search for the missing fisherman whose boat sank in the waters off Bulacan province, west of Manila, remained suspended on Friday due to strong currents.
About 20 major storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or surrounding waters every year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.
Storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coasts, intensifying more quickly and lasting longer on land due to climate change, a recent study shows.