Tropical Storm Trami claims at least 82 lives in Philippines

Tropical Storm Trami moved away from the northwestern Philippines on October 25, resulting in at least 82 fatalities due to landslides and widespread flooding.

The disaster forced authorities to urgently seek additional rescue boats to assist thousands of individuals trapped, some on their rooftops, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

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.

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

The 82 storm deaths included 26 villagers who died in floodwaters and landslides in hard-hit Bicol, an agricultural region and tourism destination southeast of Manila that is popular for Mayon, one of the country’s 24 most active volcanoes that has a near-perfect cone.

At least 27 remain missing in several provinces, including 17 in Batangas, according to Malinao and the Office of Civil Defense.

News.Az