By TALISAY, Philippines — The death toll and number of missing people from the massive flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines have risen to nearly 130. President Ferdinand Marcos said on Saturday that many areas remain isolated, with residents still in need of rescue.
Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 85 people dead and 41 others missing in one of the Southeast Asian archipelago’s deadliest and most destructive storms so far this year, the government’s disaster-response agency said. The death toll is expected to rise as reports come in from previously isolated areas.
Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, backed by three backhoes and sniffer dogs, dug up one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province Saturday.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, announced that he and his administration plan to begin work on a major flood control project designed to address the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.
A father, who was waiting for word on his missing 14-year-old daughter, wept as rescuers placed the remains in a black body bag. Distraught, he followed police officers, who carried the body bag down a mud-strewn village alley to a police van when one weeping resident approaching him to express her sympathies. The man said he was sure it was his daughter, but authorities needed to do checks to confirm the identity of the villager dug up in the mound.
In a nearby basketball gym at the town center, more than a dozen white coffins were laid side by side, bearing the remains of those found in the heaps of mud, boulders and trees that cascaded Thursday afternoon down the steep slope of a wooded ridge in Talisay’s Sampaloc village.
President Marcos, who inspected another severely affected region southeast of Manila on Saturday, noted that the unusually heavy rainfall from the storm — with some areas experiencing one to two months’ worth of rainfall in just 24 hours — overwhelmed flood controls across provinces hit by Trami.
Rescuers carry a body during retrieval operations after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami, struck homes in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jim Gomez)
“The water was just too much,” Marcos told reporters. “We’re not done yet with our rescue work,” he said. “Our problem here, there are still many areas that remained flooded and could not be accessed even to big trucks.”
His administration, Marcos said, would plan to start work on a major flood control project that can meet the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.
More than 5 million people were in the storm’s path, including nearly half a million who mostly evacuated to over 6,300 emergency shelters across several provinces, according to the government agency.
In an emergency Cabinet meeting, Marcos raised concerns 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.
If it doesn’t shift course, the storm is expected to hit Vietnam over the weekend.
Marcelino Aringo speaks near his damaged house after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami struck homes, leaving several villagers dead in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
In response to the storm, the Philippine government closed schools and government offices for a third day on Friday to protect millions on Luzon, the main northern island. Inter-island ferry services were also suspended, leaving thousands stranded. As weather cleared in many areas on Saturday, cleanup efforts were able to proceed.
Each year, about 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines, a Southeast Asian archipelago which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and flattened entire villages.
Residents try to recover personal belongings from their damaged home after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) 
