Storm Trami
Rescue teams in the Philippines have been tirelessly diving into lakes and combing remote villages to find dozens of missing individuals as the death toll from Tropical Storm Trami reaches 100.
The storm, which struck the country on October 24, has proven to be one of the deadliest to hit the Southeast Asian nation this year, wreaking havoc across several regions.
The national disaster agency reported that the storm forced over half a million people to evacuate their homes, with at least 36 individuals still missing. In the Bicol region, the hardest-hit area, police have recorded 38 fatalities, most of which were caused by drowning.
“We are still receiving distress calls and doing everything we can to save more people,” said Andre Dizon, the regional police director for Bicol. “Hopefully, the death toll won’t rise further.” He noted that many residents in Camarines Sur province remain stranded on rooftops or upper floors of their homes due to widespread flooding.
The situation is equally dire in Batangas, a province south of the capital Manila, where the death toll has climbed to 55, according to provincial police chief Jacinto Malinao.
Many of these deaths were the result of rain-triggered landslides, which buried homes under mud, rocks, and fallen trees. Search teams recovered more than 20 bodies from debris, with around 20 people still missing in the province.
In Cavite province, two additional deaths were reported—one due to electrocution and another to drowning. Five more bodies were discovered in other affected areas, bringing the total number of fatalities to 100, based on an AFP tally from official sources.
Edgar Posadas, a spokesperson for the Civil Defence Office, warned that the death toll might increase as rescuers begin to reach previously inaccessible areas. “We expect more casualties as we access isolated villages,” he said.
Search operations have been especially focused on Taal Lake in Batangas, where a family of seven remains missing. According to Malinao, their home in the town of Balete was swept away by water rushing down from the mountains.
The floods that have engulfed much of the northern Philippines have displaced around 560,000 people, submerging hundreds of villages and causing widespread destruction.
The police, coast guards, and marine divers are all working together in search and rescue operations, determined to locate the missing and recover the dead.
The Philippines experiences about 20 major storms and typhoons each year, with devastating impacts on homes, infrastructure, and lives.
A recent study highlighted the increasing intensity and duration of storms in the Asia-Pacific region due to climate change, as well as their tendency to form closer to coastlines, exacerbating the threat they pose to vulnerable communities.
As the country faces this latest calamity, rescue efforts continue, with hopes of minimizing further loss of life and restoring normalcy to the affected regions.
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