People traverse a river near a bridge that collapsed following the overflow of the river due to heavy rain caused by Tropical Storm Trami in Laurel, Batangas province, south of Manila on Friday. AFP
Rescuers in the Philippines were diving into a lake and searching isolated villages on Sunday to locate dozens of missing individuals as the death toll from Tropical Storm Trami reached 100. Trami, which struck the Philippines on October 24, was one of the deadliest storms to impact the Southeast Asian country this year. According to the national disaster agency, it forced over half a million people to evacuate their homes, and at least 36 people remain unaccounted for.
An aerial view shows people wading through a flooded area as they search for the body of a villager in Tuguegarao, Cagayan province, north of Manila on Saturday. AFP
Police in the hardest-hit Bicol region have recorded 38 deaths, mostly due to drowning. "We are still receiving numerous calls and are trying to save as many people as possible," Bicol regional police director Andre Dizon told AFP. "Hopefully, there will be no more fatalities." Dizon added that "many residents" in the region's Camarines Sur province are still stranded on roofs and upper floors of their homes. The death toll in Batangas, south of Manila, has risen to 55, according to provincial police chief Jacinto Malinao. Two deaths were reported in separate incidents of electrocution and drowning in Cavite province, police said. Five additional bodies were recovered in other provinces, bringing the total to 100, based on an AFP tally from official police and disaster agency sources.
"A higher death toll is possible in the coming days as rescuers can now reach previously isolated areas," Edgar Posadas of the Civil Defence Office told AFP. The police, coast guards, and a Marines diving team were searching on Sunday for a family of seven at Taal Lake in Batangas. "The waters from the mountains hit their home in Balete town, causing it to be swept away with them possibly inside," Malinao, the provincial police chief, said. Most of the deaths in Batangas have been attributed to rain-induced landslides. Over 20 bodies were recovered from heaps of mud, boulders, and fallen trees, while police said at least another 20 people in the province are still missing.
"We will continue searching until all bodies are retrieved," Malinao said. The national disaster agency reported Sunday that about 560,000 people had been displaced by floods, which submerged hundreds of villages across large areas of the northern Philippines. About 20 major storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and causing numerous fatalities. A recent study indicated 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.
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