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Scores Killed As Tropical Storm Hits Philippines

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MANILA (Worthy News) – Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has left at least 82 dead and tens of thousands displaced due to heavy rains and flooding, authorities said Friday.

Footage reviewed by Worthy News showed that rescue efforts are challenging in the hardest-hit areas, including the Bicol and Batangas provinces, due to difficult accessibility and thick mud.

A Christian worker from Bicol, Meriam Comia, told Worthy News that despite the devastation, “God is so good, ” adding that a brother managed to reach a shelter for evacuees in time. Water was partly flooding her home, but it was still standing. “Due to the storm, I could not reach my workplace, but I am happy to be alive,” she said. “But many people died.”

Officials said the storm brought two months’ worth of rain in just two days, causing widespread devastation and prompting the evacuation of nearly 320,000 people.

But the onslaught may not be over: State forecasters raised the rare possibility that the storm — the 11th and one of the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year — could make a U-turn next week.

Trami made landfall Thursday on the northeast coast of Luzon, the country’s most populous island, and caused widespread flooding and landslides.

The Bicol Peninsula, at the southeastern end of Luzon, was worst-hit, with floodwaters chasing people and their pets to the second story of their homes.

MANY ON ROOFS

“Many are still trapped on the roofs of their homes and asking for help,” Andre Dizon, policy director for the hard-hit Bicol region, added in separately published remarks.“We hope the floods will subside today since the rain has stopped.”

But accessibility remained a significant issue for rescuers Friday, especially in Bicol, President Ferdinand Marcos said. “That’s the problem we’re having with Bicol. It’s so difficult to penetrate,” he said, adding that the heavily saturated ground led to “landslides in areas that didn’t have landslides before.”

However, as Tropical Storm Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday,
a Philippine provincial police chief said Friday that 49 people were killed, mostly in landslides set off by Trami in Batangas province south of Manila, the capital.

That reportedly brought the overall death toll from the storm to at least 82, but the toll was likely to rise fast.

Eleven other villagers remain missing in Batangas, Col. Jacinto Malinao Jr. told reporters from the lakeside town of Talisay, where he stood beside a villager whose wife and child were buried in the deep mound of mud, boulders, and trees.

Experts are divided over what causes the high death toll, with several blaming it on climate change while others also mention intense building and a lack of adequate infrastructure as reasons.

Due to its location in the Pacific typhoon belt, prone to extreme weather, the Philippines experiences an average of 20 tropical storms and typhoons yearly.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 7,300 people.