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Philippine rescue workers battled floodwaters on Friday to reach residents still trapped on the roofs of their homes as Tropical Storm Trami moved out to sea after killing at least 40 people.
Tens of thousands remain displaced after fleeing floods caused by torrential downpours that delivered two months’ worth of rainfall in just two days in some areas.
“Many are still trapped on the roofs of their homes and asking for help,” Andre Dizon, police director for the hard-hit Bicol region, told AFP. “We are hoping the floods will subside today, as the rain has stopped.”
Accessibility remains a major issue for rescuers, particularly in Bicol, President Ferdinand Marcos said at a press briefing.
“There were landslides in areas that didn’t have landslides before… so I guess the soil is completely saturated, and the water has nowhere to go,” he said.
The cities of Naga and Legazpi reported “many casualties, but we haven’t been able to get in yet,” Marcos added.
As Trami departed the Philippines in the early hours, travelling west over the South China Sea, the storm’s death toll rose as new reports of victims emerged.
In Batangas province, south of the capital Manila, police staff sergeant Nelson Cabuso told AFP that six unidentified bodies had been found in Sampaloc village.
“The area was hit by a flash flood yesterday. Our team is still in the area to check if there are other casualties,” he said.
Another five people were killed in a flash flood in the coastal village of Subic Ilaya, police corporal Alvin de Leon said, pushing the toll to at least 40, according to an AFP tally from police and disaster officials.
While Manila was seemingly spared the severe flooding seen during Typhoon Gaemi in July, AFP reporters on Friday observed a largely submerged subdivision south of the capital.
‘Two months’ worth of rain’ –
Government offices and schools across the main island of Luzon remained closed on Friday, and storm surge warnings were still in place along the west coast, with potential waves reaching up to two metres.
State weather agency specialist Jofren Habaluyas told AFP that Batangas province had seen “two months’ worth of rain,” or 391.3 millimetres, fall over October 24 and 25.
An official tally late on Thursday reported 193,000 people evacuated due to flooding that turned streets into rivers and half-buried some towns in sludge-like volcanic sediment loosened by the storm.
Many of those affected were in the Bicol region, where more than 30,000 residents fled on Wednesday alone amid “unexpectedly high” floodwaters.
Rescuers in the region’s Naga city and Nabua municipality used boats to reach residents stranded on rooftops, many of whom sought help via Facebook posts.
In the Batangas town of Lemery, about 97 kilometres (60 miles) south of Manila, a hospital was forced to turn away patients as its wards and emergency rooms became flooded.
The search for a missing fisherman whose boat sank in the waters off Bulacan province, west of Manila, remained suspended on Friday due to strong currents, according to the local disaster office.
Around 20 major storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters each year, causing damage to homes and infrastructure and claiming dozens of lives.
However, a recent study indicates that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly, and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
AFP
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