As the death toll from Tropical Storm Trami reached 100, rescuers in the Philippines were searching remote villages and plunging into a lake on Sunday in an attempt to find scores of missing people.
One of the deadliest storms to strike the Southeast Asian nation this year was Trami, which struck the Philippines on October 24.
Over half a million people were forced to leave their homes, and at least 36 people are still unaccounted for, according to the National Disaster Agency.
38 people have died, the most from drowning, according to police in the most affected area of Bicol.
Andre Dizon, the regional police director for Bicol, told AFP, “We are still receiving a lot of calls and we are trying to save as many people as we can.”
“I hope there won’t be any more deaths.”hs.”
Dizon added that “many residents” in the region’s Camarines Sur province are still trapped on roofs and the upper floors of their homes.
Jacinto Malinao, the provincial police commander, told AFP that the number of fatalities in Batangas, which is south of Manila, had increased to 55.
In Cavite province, two people were reported deceased in separate drowning and electrocution incidents, according to authorities.
According to an AFP count based on official police and disaster agency sources, five more deaths were found in neighbouring regions, raising the total to 100.
“A higher death toll is possible in the coming days since rescuers can now reach previously isolated places,” 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.
More than 20 bodies were pulled 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 service reported on Sunday that floods had flooded hundreds of villages throughout large areas of the northern Philippines, displacing roughly 560,000 people.
Every year, the archipelago nation or the waters around it are struck by about 20 powerful storms and typhoons, which cause scores of fatalities and damage to houses and infrastructure.
According to a recent study, climate change is causing storms in the Asia-Pacific area to form closer to coastlines, strengthen more quickly, and linger longer over land.
