President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. states, “I’m afraid the worst is yet to come, so let’s all prepare.”
An impending tropical storm triggered torrential rain, which caused extensive flooding in the eastern Philippines, killing at least nine people, trapping others on their roofs, and prompting desperate calls for assistance, according to officials.
In order to safeguard millions of people as tropical storm Trami came closer from the Pacific, the government closed all of the major island of Luzon’s public schools and government offices, with the exception of those that were immediately needed for disaster response.
Prior to the storm’s anticipated landfall on the northeastern Philippine coast, at least nine persons lost their lives in five provinces in the region as well as in the severely affected city of Naga.
According to police and local officials, landslides and drowning were the main causes of the deaths, with roughly seven people still unaccounted for.
“People have been stuck on roofs of their houses for several hours now,” said former Vice President Leni Robredo, who resides in Naga, a city in the northeast, in an early Wednesday Facebook post.
“Many of our rescue trucks have stalled due to the floods.”
Since Tuesday, Coast Guard members have been saving people from flooded communities in the eastern provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, and the surrounding areas. However, according to provincial officials, there are not enough rescue boats or personnel to handle the situation.
The storm was last observed in the province of Isabela, around 175 kilometers (109 miles) east of the town of Echague. With sustained winds of 95 kph (59 mph) and gusts of up to 115 kph (71 mph), it had gotten stronger.
It was predicted that the storm will strike the coast of Isabela on Wednesday night and enter the South China Sea early on Thursday. It would then proceed to ravage northern Luzon.
State forecasts warned that in the most vulnerable areas along its course, its broad rain band might dump up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rains in a single day of heavy downpours.
“The worst is yet to come.”
In the regions to the northeast, thousands of villagers have been evacuated to emergency shelters.
More than 30 northern and central provinces were under storm warnings, including Manila, the heavily populated capital that was not directly in the storm’s path but may still be battered by its torrential rains.
According to Communications Secretary Cesar Chavez, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called an emergency meeting to discuss disaster mitigation measures and canceled all of his meetings on Wednesday.
“The worst is yet to come, I’m afraid, so let’s all prepare,” Marcos stated.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro stated during the meeting that evacuations and emergency response will be handled by the military’s ships and planes. If necessary, he said, friendly nations like Singapore might supply more airlift power.
The Coast Guard said it banned inter-island ferry services and prohibited fishing boats from navigating the increasingly choppy waters, leaving thousands of passengers and freight workers stranded at several seaports.
Representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur province told the DZRH radio network, “We need national intervention.” He stated that his flood-prone area currently has roughly 50 rescue boats but need roughly 200.
According to Governor Angelina Tan of Quezon province, at least 8,000 residents have fled as a result of floodwaters that reached up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) in some places.
Every year, the Philippines is hit by roughly 20 typhoons and storms.
The Southeast Asian nation is among the most disaster-prone in the world since the archipelago is located in the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area that runs along the majority of the Pacific Ocean rim and is frequently the site of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
One of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, Typhoon Haiyan, destroyed entire communities, drove ships inland, and uprooted over 5 million people in the central Philippines in 2013. It also left over 7,300 people dead or missing.
