Trami kills dozens in Philippines

After tropical storm Trami triggered widespread flooding and landslides in the Philippines, the president claimed that many places remained isolated, leaving over 100 people dead and missing.

Trami, one of the deadliest and most damaging storms to hit the south-east Asian island this year, swept away from the northwest Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 81 people dead and 34 missing, according to the government’s disaster response agency. As news from previously remote places came in, the death toll was predicted to increase.

In the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province, dozens of police, firefighters, and other emergency officials, supported by three backhoes and search dogs, retrieved one of the two remaining missing locals on Saturday.According to Bongbong Marcos, president of the Philippines, who visited a severely affected area southeast of Manila on Saturday, the storm’s exceptionally high rainfall total—which in some places amounted to one to two months’ worth of precipitation in a single day—has overtaken flood controls in the provinces hit by the trami.

“The water was just too much,” Marcos told reporters. “We’re not done yet with our rescue work. Our problem here, there are still many areas that remained flooded and could not be accessed even [by] big trucks.”

In order to address the extraordinary challenges posed by the climate issue, Marcos stated that his administration would begin planning a large flood control project. The government agency reported that over 4.2 million people were in the storm’s path, including about 500,000 who mostly sought refuge in more than 6,400 emergency shelters spread across many provinces.

Marcos voiced reservations during an emergency cabinet meeting about official forecasters’ claims that the storm, which is the 11th to hit the Philippines this year, may turn around next week as high-pressure winds in the South China Sea push it back. If the storm did not deviate, it was expected to lash Vietnam during the weekend.

To ensure the safety of millions of people on the major northern island of Luzon, the Philippine government closed its government offices and schools for the third day on Friday. Thousands of people were left stranded when inter-island ferry services were also canceled. Cleanup operations started on Saturday after the weather in many places cleared. The Philippines is hit by roughly 20 storms and typhoons annually. One of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, Typhoon Haiyan, destroyed entire villages and killed or left over 7,300 people missing in 2013.