MANILA: Tropical Storm Trami has killed 14 people and forced thousands of people to evacuate as it barrels toward the east coast, so rescuers in the Philippines had to wade through chest-deep floodwaters on Wednesday to reach those who were trapped there.
The torrential downpour has flooded entire villages, transformed streets into rivers, and buried some vehicles in volcanic sediment released by the downpour.
As the storm moves closer to the main island of Luzon in the Southeast Asian nation, at least 32,000 people have fled their homes in the northern Philippines, according to police.
According to police, rescue efforts were being hampered by “unexpectedly high” flooding in the Bicol region, which is located approximately 400 kilometers southeast of Manila. According to Luisa Calubaquib, a spokeswoman for the regional police, “We sent police rescue teams, but they struggled to enter some areas because the flooding was high and the current was so strong.”
Local police chief Erwin Rebellion reported that floodwaters in the Bicol city of Naga caused the deaths of eleven people. According to police, a toddler died after falling into a flooded canal and an elderly woman drowned southeast of the capital in Quezon province. The civil defense office in Manila reported that a tree branch fell and killed one person.
According to the national weather service, the center of the storm was 150 kilometers east of the province of Isabela in Luzon at 8 p.m., with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour.
The agency added that it was anticipated that it would collide with the coast of Isabela sometime late on Thursday night or early on, weakening slightly as it crossed the island and headed out into the South China Sea.
In excess of 500 millimeters of downpour, or north of a month’s worth, has proactively fallen on the district in the beyond 24 hours. In the Bato municipality of the Camarines Sur province, photos taken on Wednesday showed streets covered in muddy floodwaters, with only the roofs of houses and convenience stores visible. It’s becoming risky. Karen Tabagan, a resident, stated, “We’re waiting for rescuers.”
Half of the 600 villages in Naga, 40 kilometers from Bato, were completely submerged by flooding.
