Philippine flooding triggered by tropical storm Trami (Kristine) kills 150, with 6.7 million affected - 2 months' rain (15.4 inches) in 2 days (UPDATED)

ucanews.com
Wed, 23 Oct 2024 12:05 UTC

Flooding triggered by tropical storm Trami killed at least three people and displaced about 382,300 people in central Philippines, prompting the government and aid groups to rush with aid for the victims.

Trami, the 11th typhoon to hit the Catholic-majority nation this year, disrupted classes, work and public transport in Bicol, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Eastern Visayas region, government officials said.

The storm started making landfall on Oct. 21 and vast areas remain submerged in muddy water as of Oct. 23.

During a meeting with disaster management officials in the capital Manila on Oct. 23, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said rescuers have mobilized rubber boats from various provinces from as far as Mindanao island in southern Philippines to bring the affected communities to safety.

In Camarines Sur, the largest among six provinces in Bicol, at least half of its land area is still underwater due to massive flooding, the president disclosed.

"As soon as we can, we will go in. Since we can't use helicopters, we need to use trucks to deliver the supplies," Marcos said in a televised briefing.

As floods continue to wreak havoc in Bicol, the Archdiocese of Caceres, comprising 93 parishes of the region, also pitched in to help.

"We are currently consolidating our list of parishes and institutions in the Archdiocese that opened as evacuation centers and the number of evacuees [sheltered there]," the archdiocese said on social media on Oct. 23.

It also asked the public to help them update their list by commenting on their social media account, saying that "help in whatever form is welcome."

The archdiocese said hundreds of flood-hit people have been sheltering in dozens of churches in the region where Church volunteers are offering them necessary support.

The storm and flooding have left cities and towns without power for hours.

In Legazpi City, the regional center and largest city of the Bicol region, and in Albay province, the power supply has yet to be restored, as of Oct. 23.

"I was nervous because the rain started Monday night [Oct. 21] and continued non-stop until Tuesday, and again throughout Tuesday night," Lani Macua, a 56-year-old resident of Legazpi City, told UCA News on Oct. 23.

The rain finally stopped in Legazpi City on the morning of Oct. 23.

Macua said she had prepared for the disaster by packing food stock and an emergency kit as she had experienced major typhoons including Typhoon Reming in 2006 and Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

"We reminded people early on that those living in flood-prone areas should evacuate. But of course, not everyone follows. They think it's okay," she added.

In Eastern Visayas, Major Analiza Armeza, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-8, told UCA News on Oct. 23 that they will also send relief goods and rescue personnel through inter-agency for the flood victims of the neighboring Bicol region.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development said their humanitarian assistance to the affected residents has already reached 2.3 million pesos (US$ 39,717), as of Oct. 23, according to Disaster Response Management Group Assistant Secretary and agency spokesperson Irene Dumlao.

On average, at least 20 typhoons hit the Philippines each year due to its location along the Pacific typhoon belt.

Comment: Agence France-Presse reports:

Philippine rescuers waded through chest-deep flood waters Wednesday to reach residents trapped by Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami), which has killed seven people and forced thousands to evacuate as it barrels toward the east coast.

Torrential rain driven by the storm has turned streets into rivers, submerged entire villages and buried some vehicles in volcanic sediment set loose by the downpour.

At least 32,000 people have fled their homes in the northern Philippines, police said, as the storm edges closer to the Southeast Asian country's main island of Luzon.

In the Bicol region, about 400 kilometers (249 miles) southeast of the capital Manila, "unexpectedly high" flooding was complicating rescue efforts, said police.

Update October 24

AP reports:

At least 24 people killed in north-eastern Philippines as Tropical Storm Trami causes flooding and landslides

Widespread flooding and landslides have left at least 24 people dead after Tropical Storm Trami hit the north-eastern Philippines on Thursday.

The government shut down schools and offices for the second day on the entire main island of Luzon to protect millions of people after the storm hit the country's north-eastern province of Isabela after midnight.

The storm was blowing over Aguinaldo town in the mountain province of Ifugao after dawn, with sustained winds up to 95 kilometres per hour and gusts up to 160kph.

It was blowing westward and on track to enter the South China Sea later on Thursday, according to state forecasters.

Most of the deaths were reported in the six-province Bicol region, south-east of Manila, where at least 20 people died, including seven residents in Naga city, which was inundated by flash floods during Trami's approach on Tuesday.

The toll is expected to rise as towns and villages isolated by the storm manage to send out reports, police and provincial officials said.

More than two months' worth of rainfall fell in just 24 hours at high tide, regional Police Chief Andre Dizon and other officials said.

Update October 25

Associated Press reports:

Storm blows away from northern Philippines leaving 82 dead but forecasters warn it may do a U-turn

Tropical Storm Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 82 people dead in landslides and extensive flooding that forced authorities to scramble for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people, who were trapped, some on their roofs.

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 as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea.

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. That brought the overall death toll from the storm to at least 82.

Eleven other villagers remain missing in Batangas, Col. Jacinto Malinao Jr. told The Associated Press by telephone 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.

With the use of a backhoe and shovels, police scrambled to search into 10 feet (3 meters) of mud, rocks and debris and found a part of a head and foot that apparently were those of the missing woman and child.

"He's simply devastated," Malinao said of the villager, a fisherman, whose wife and child were buried in the landslide that happened Thursday afternoon amid torrential rains while he was away tending to fish cages in a lake.

[...]

More than 2.6 million people were affected by the deluge, with nearly 320,000 people fleeing into evacuation centers or relatives' homes, disaster-mitigation officials said.

AFP reports:

'Two months' worth of rain

Government offices and schools across the main island of Luzon remained shuttered Friday, and storm surge warnings were still in place along the west coast, with potential waves as high as two meters.

State weather agency specialist Jofren Habaluyas told AFP that Batangas province had seen "two months' worth of rain", or 391.3 mm, fall over Oct. 24 and 25.

Update October 28

Xinhua reports:

Death toll from tropical storm Trami in Philippines climbs to 116, 39 missing

The death toll from catastrophic flooding and landslides triggered by tropical storm Trami that slammed into the Philippines last week has risen to 116, with at least 39 people remaining unaccounted for, the Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Monday.

Local authorities said Trami dumped two months of rain, impacting over 6.7 million people across 17 of the country's regions.

The search continues for 39 missing people who were either buried in landslides or washed away by the floods.

Update October 31

Business World reports:

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Thursday said his government remained in "full control" as deaths caused by Tropical Storm Trami and Super typhoon Kong-rey, which caused heavy rains in the northernmost province of Batanes, climbed to more than 100.

In a statement, he noted that while state resources and personnel "may be stretched due to the impact of typhoons on multiple fronts," the government was "ably handling all disaster management efforts." "We remain in full control."

In an 8 a.m. report, the Philippines' disaster agency said the reported death toll from Trami, locally named Kristine, and Super Typhoon Kong-rey (Leon) had hit 150. Fourteen deaths have been validated, while 29 people were still missing, it added.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said there were 115 reported injuries. More than 150,000 were damaged, more than 10,000 of which were totally destroyed. Trami and Kong-rey have caused P6.5 billion in damage to infrastructure.