As the death toll and the number of people missing from heavy rains and landslides in the Philippines due to Typhoon Trami have risen to nearly 130, the president said on Saturday that many areas were still cut off and people were in need of rescue.
Typhoon Trami moved through the northwestern Philippines on Friday, but left 85 dead and 41 missing. It has been the most destructive storm this year. The death toll is likely to rise as reports are still expected from many isolated areas.
In the town of Talisay in Batangas province, police, firefighters and emergency personnel were working with three backhoe machines and dogs to find the last two people trapped in the landslide. A father searching for his 14- year- old daughter was in tears as rescuers placed the body in a body bag. As the police were taking the bag to a van, people near the father came to console him. The father said he was sure it was his daughter, but authorities had to go through the process of identifying the body.
Double white coffins were kept at the same place in the basketball gym of the town center to hold the bodies of the villagers of Samplock village in Talisay. They were killed in the landslide, which was piled high with mud, rocks and trees.
President Ferdinand Marcos inspected a storm- hit area southeast of Manila on Saturday. Marcos said the storm’s heavy rains, and in some areas two months’ worth of rain in 24 hours, broke dams and disrupted flood control. “The amount of water was very high,” he said.
“Our rescue work is not over yet,” he said. “Many areas are still flooded and inaccessible even for large vehicles.”
Marcos announced that his administration would initiate an ambitious flood control project to deal with future disasters caused by climate change.
About 500,000 people were in the path of the storm, of which about 500,000 people took shelter in more than 6300 emergency shelter centers in various provinces.
At the emergency cabinet meeting, Marcos expressed concern over a report by government meteorologists that Typhoon Trami is likely to move back toward the Philippines due to high pressure in the South China Sea. This storm may hit Vietnam if it does not change direction.
The Philippine government closed schools and government offices for the third day in a row on Friday to protect people in the country’s main northern Luzon island. In addition, inter- island ferry services were suspended, stranding thousands of people.
The weather cleared in many areas on Saturday, prompting the start of cleaning and rescue operations in many areas.
About 20 typhoons and typhoons damage the Philippines every year. Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and destroyed entire villages.