At least 126 people died in landslides | News, Sports, Jobs

Marcelino Aringo stands atop a damaged house on Saturday following a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines. Associated Press

TALISAY, Philippines — The death toll from massive floods and mudslides caused by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has reached nearly 130, and many areas remain isolated with people needing rescue, the president said Saturday.

The government’s disaster response agency said Trami blew through the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 85 people dead and 41 missing in one of the deadliest and most destructive storms in the Southeast Asian archipelago so far this year. The death toll was expected to rise due to reports from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, assisted by three diggers and search dogs, rescued one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province on Saturday.

A father waiting for news about his missing 14-year-old daughter cried as rescue teams placed the body in a black body bag. Distraught, he followed officers carrying the body bag down a mud-covered village street to a police van as a weeping resident approached him to express his condolences.

The man said he was sure it was his daughter, but authorities needed to carry out checks to confirm the identity of the villager who dug into the mound.

At a nearby ballpark downtown, more than a dozen white coffins lay side by side, carrying the remains of those found in piles of mud, rocks and trees that flowed down the steep slope of a forested hill Thursday afternoon. Sampaloc village of Talisay.

President Ferdinand Marcos, who inspected another hard-hit region southeast of Manila on Saturday, said the unusually large amount of rainfall dropped by the storm – including some areas that received one to two months of rainfall in just 24 hours – had exceeded flood controls. In the provinces where Trami whipped.

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

“Our rescue efforts are not over yet,” he said. “Our problem here is that there are still many areas that are under water and even large trucks cannot reach.”

Marcos said his administration will plan to begin work on a major flood control project that could meet the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.

The government agency said more than 5 million people were in the storm’s path, including nearly half a million people, most of whom fled to more than 6,300 emergency shelters in various provinces.

At an emergency Cabinet meeting, Marcos expressed concern over reports by government forecasters that the storm, the 11th to hit the Philippines this year, could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea. .

It was estimated that the storm would hit Vietnam over the weekend if it did not deviate from its route.

The Philippine government closed schools and government offices for a third day on Friday to keep millions of people safe on the northern island of Luzon. Inter-island ferry services were also stopped and thousands of people were stranded.