Storm in the Philippines kills 65 and could return next week

U-TURN?
Trami was moving northwest toward Vietnam yesterday, but high-pressure winds and other factors could force it to turn back toward the Philippines.

Tropical Storm Trami moved away from the northwestern Philippines yesterday, leaving at least 65 people dead in landslides and major flooding that forced authorities to search for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people, who were trapped, some in their roofs.

The attack may not be over, however: State forecasters raised the rare possibility that the storm, the 11th and one of the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year, could do a U-turn next week as it is rejected by high pressure. Winds in the South China Sea.

A Philippine provincial police chief said yesterday that 33 people were killed, most in landslides triggered by Trami in Batangas province. That brought the total death toll from the storm to at least 65.

Photo: AP/Malacanang Presidential Communications Office

Eleven other villagers remain missing in Batangas, Col. Jacinto Malinao Jr said by phone from the lakeside town of Talisay, where he was standing next to a villager whose wife and son were buried in a deep mound of mud, rocks and trees.

Using a backhoe and shovels, police scrambled to search through 10 feet of mud, rocks and debris, and found a portion of the head and foot that appeared to be those of the missing woman and child.

“He’s just devastated,” Malinao said of the villager, a fisherman, whose wife and son were buried in a landslide Thursday afternoon amid torrential rains while he was tending to fish cages at a lake.

“He is in shock and cannot speak and we just ask him to point out where his room was located so we can excavate that part,” Malinao said.

The storm was last tracked at dawn, blowing 125 kilometers west of the coastal city of Bacnotan, in the northern province of La Union, with sustained winds of up to 95 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 115 kilometers per hour. It was moving northwest at 25 kilometers per hour toward Vietnam, which was forecast to be hit by Trami starting tomorrow if it maintains its course.

However, the Philippine weather agency said it was possible that high-pressure winds and other weather factors in the South China Sea could force the storm back toward the Philippines.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, looking exasperated, asked about that prospect yesterday at an emergency meeting with cabinet members and disaster response officials on the response to the widespread devastation.

“What’s the prognosis for that? Is it possible that he returns? Mark asked.

A government forecaster told Trami could turn toward the western Philippines early next week, but is more likely to move away from the Philippines again without making landfall.

“It doesn’t have to make landfall for damage to occur,” Marcos said, citing the continued rains brought on by Trami in the Philippines.

Marcos also cited another storm brewing in the Pacific Ocean that could threaten the country again.

“Oh God, it is what it is. We just have to deal with it,” Marcos said.

State forecaster Jofren Habaluyas said Trami’s possible U-turn has sparked interest among government weather experts in Asia, including those in Japan, which has been providing information to the Philippines to help track the storm.

The 65 storm deaths included 26 villagers who died in floods and landslides in Bicol, an agricultural region and tourist destination southeast of Manila that is popular for Mayon, one of the country’s 24 most active volcanoes that has a nearly perfect cone. .

Although Trami did not become a typhoon, it dumped unusually heavy rain on some regions, including some that recorded one or two months’ worth of rainfall in just 24 hours, inundating communities with flash floods.

Authorities in the city of Naga, where 11 people drowned, and the outlying provinces of Camarines Sur and Albay called for more rescue boats to be sent at the height of the attack to reach people trapped on the upper floors of their buildings. houses or on their roofs as the waters rose. .

In the foothills of the Mayon volcano in Albay province, mud and other debris cascaded toward nearby towns as the storm hit, engulfing homes and cars in streams of black mud.

More than 2.6 million people were affected by the deluge, and nearly 320,000 people fled to evacuation centers or relatives’ homes, disaster mitigation officials said.