Storm kills 82 people in the Philippines | The Arkansas Democratic Gazette

MANILA, Philippines – Tropical Storm Trami moved away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 82 people dead in landslides and extensive flooding that forced authorities to search for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people left behind. trapped, some on their roofs.

The attack may not be over: State meteorologists 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 the high pressure. Winds in the South China Sea.

A Philippine provincial police chief said Friday that 49 people were killed in landslides triggered by Trami in Batangas province, south of Manila. That brought the total 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 lake town of Talisay, where he was with a villager whose wife and son were buried in a deep mound of mud, rocks and trees. .

Using a backhoe and shovels, police searched through 10 feet of mud, rocks and debris and found part of a head and foot that apparently belonged to his missing family.

“He’s just devastated,” Malinao said of the villager, a fisherman, whose wife and son were buried in Thursday afternoon’s landslide amid torrential rains while tending 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 Friday afternoon 255 miles west of Ilocos Sur province in the northwestern Philippines, with sustained winds of 59 mph and gusts of 78 mph. It was moving northwest at 19 mph toward Vietnam, which is forecast to be hit by Trami starting Sunday.

The Philippine weather agency, however, said high-pressure winds and other weather factors in the South China Sea are likely to force the storm back toward the Philippines.

President Ferdinand Marcos, looking exasperated, asked about the prospect of widespread devastation at an emergency meeting with cabinet members and disaster response officials on Friday.

“What’s the prognosis for that? Is it possible he’ll come back?” 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.

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

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.