Tropical storm leaves 66 dead in Philippines

AFP :

Residents of the northern Philippines used spades and rakes to clear their homes of mud and debris on Friday while others still awaited rescue as the death toll from Tropical Storm Trami rose to 66.
Tens of thousands remained displaced after fleeing floods driven by a torrential downpour that dumped two months’ worth of rainfall over just two days in some areas.
“Many are still trapped on the roofs of their homes and asking for help,” Andre Dizon, police director for the hard-hit Bicol region, told AFP. “We are hoping that the floods will subside today [Friday] since the rain has stopped.”
But accessibility remained a major issue for rescuers on Friday, particularly in Bicol, President Ferdinand Marcos said at a morning press briefing.
“That’s the problem we’re having with Bicol, so difficult to penetrate,” he said, adding that ground saturated by rain had led to “landslides in areas that didn’t have landslides before.”
In Laurel, a scenic town nestled near volcanic Lake Taal south of the capital Manila, AFP reporters saw roads blocked by felled trees, vehicles half-submerged in mud and homes severely damaged by flash flooding.
“We saw washing machines, cars, home equipment, roofs being swept away,” resident Mimie Dionela, 56, told AFP.
“We’re lucky [the rain] happened in the morning, for sure many would’ve died if it happened at night,” she said. “It was indescribable how scared we were.”
Islao Malabanan, 63, agreed he was alive only because the flood occurred during daytime, but said his family had lost everything “including our clothes.”
Jona Maulion, who started an auto repair business in Laurel less than a year ago, questioned if her family could ever afford to restart from scratch.
“We thought we were on the way to success in the business,” the 47-year-old said. “I didn’t know that this would happen, everything is gone.”
As Trami departed the Philippines in the early hours, traveling west over the South China Sea, the storm’s death toll was swelling as fresh reports of victims emerged.
In Batangas province south of Manila, the number of confirmed dead had more than doubled to 34, police told a local radio outlet on Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, police staff sergeant Nelson Cabuso told AFP six unidentified bodies had been found in the province’s Sampaloc village.
“The area was hit by a flash flood yesterday [Thursday]. Our people are still in the area to check if there are other casualties,” he said.