Homeowners in the northern Philippines used spades and rakes to clear out debris left by Tropical Storm Trami on Friday while rescuers trawled through thick mud looking for the missing as the death toll rose to 76.
Tens of thousands of people were displaced by floods fueled by a torrential downpour that dumped two months’ worth of rain over just two days in some areas.
Government offices and schools across the main island of Luzon remained shuttered Friday, but storm surge warnings were canceled along the west coast as Trami flew farther out to sea.
Batangas province had seen “two months’ worth of rain”, or 391.3mm, fall over October 24 and 25.
Nearly 320,000 people evacuated in the face of flooding that turned streets into rivers and half-buried some towns in sludge-like volcanic sediment set loose by the storm.
Rescuers in Naga City and Nabua municipality used boats to reach residents stranded on rooftops, many of whom sought assistance via Facebook posts.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.
A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
