Rescuers in the Philippines are diving into a lake and searching remote villages to find dozens of missing individuals as the death toll from Tropical Storm Trami reaches 100.
Trami, which struck the Philippines on October 24, is one of the deadliest storms to impact the Southeast Asian nation this year.
The national disaster agency reports that it has forced over half a million people to evacuate their homes, with at least 36 individuals still unaccounted for.
Authorities in the severely affected Bicol region have documented 38 fatalities, primarily due to drowning.
In Cavite province, two additional deaths were reported from separate incidents of electrocution and drowning, according to police.
Approximately 20 significant storms and typhoons affect the archipelago nation or its adjacent waters annually.
Five more corpses were recovered in various provinces, bringing the total to 100, as per an AFP count based on official police and disaster agency data.
“An increased death toll is likely in the coming days as rescuers gain access to previously unreachable areas,” stated Edgar Posadas from the Civil Defence Office.
Many fatalities in Batangas have been linked to rain-triggered landslides.
More than 20 bodies were extracted from mounds of mud, boulders, and fallen trees, while police reported that at least another 20 individuals in the province remain missing.
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The national disaster agency indicated that around 560,000 people have been displaced due to floods, which submerged hundreds of villages across northern Philippines.
Each year, about 20 significant storms and typhoons strike the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters, causing damage to homes and infrastructure while claiming numerous lives.
A recent study revealed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more quickly, and lingering longer over land as a result of climate change.
