Death toll in Philippines from floods, landslides rises after typhoon Trami

The number of dead and missing from the massive floods and landslides caused by super typhoon Trami in the Philippines has reached almost 130, and the president said on Saturday that many areas are still isolated with people in need of rescue.

Trami ripped through the northwestern Philippines on Friday, initially leaving at least 85 people dead and 41 missing in one of the deadliest and most powerful typhoons so far this year, the government's disaster agency said. The death toll was expected to rise as reports came in from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, backed by three sniffer dogs and sniffer dogs, captured one of the last two missing residents in the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province on Saturday.

A father, who was waiting to hear about his missing 14-year-old daughter, cried as rescuers put the bones into a black body bag. Frustrated, he followed the police, who carried the house bag through the muddy valley to the police van where a crying resident came to him for sympathy.

The suspect said he was sure it was his daughter, but the authorities must check to confirm the identity of the citizen buried in the mound.

In the basketball gym in the center of the city, more than a dozen white boxes were placed, carrying the remains of those who were found in the mounds of mud, stones and trees that collapsed on Thursday afternoon in the slope of the forest Talisay's Sampaloc area.

President Ferdinand Marcos, who inspected another hard-hit region southeast of Manila on Saturday, said the unusually high volume of rain dumped by the storm – including in some areas that saw two to two months' worth of rain in just 24 hours – had brought flooding under control. in the provinces affected by Trami.

“The water was too much,” Marcos told reporters.

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

His administration, Marcos said, will plan to start work on a major flood control project that can meet the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.

More than five million people were in the path of the storm, including nearly half a million who have fled to more than 6,300 emergency shelters in several states, the government agency said.

In an emergency Cabinet meeting, Marcos expressed concern over reports of government forecasts that the typhoon – the 11th to hit the Philippines this year – may make a U-turn next week as it is pushed by strong winds in the South China Sea. .

The typhoon was predicted to hit Vietnam over the weekend if it continues.

The Philippine government closed schools and government offices for a third day on Friday to keep millions of people safe on the northern main island of Luzon. Boats operating between the islands were also stopped, leaving thousands stranded.

The weather changed in many places on Saturday, allowing for cleaning work in many places.

Each year, about 20 typhoons and typhoons hit the Philippines, an archipelago in Southeast Asia between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and destroyed entire villages.