Water was already up to his knees, but 22-year-old Kierwen Garlan’s first thought was how to help his neighbors, as their homes were filling with floodwater and being lashed by heavy rain.
Tropical Storm Trami, known locally as Kristine, swept across the northeastern Philippines last week, inundating entire towns with severe flooding and triggering deadly landslides in what was the deadliest and most destructive storm to hit the archipelago so far this year.
The Philippines is struck by multiple typhoons a year and Trami was not an especially strong storm when it made landfall, at least in terms of windspeed. But it was the intense downpours that brought destruction.
Nearly 130 people have been killed and at least 30 are missing, the country’s disaster relief agency said, as authorities race to deliver relief to remote communities, particularly those in the hardest hit Bicol region, ahead of another powerful storm that could soon lash the region again.
“Of course, we were scared, but luckily my family’s house is on higher ground,” Garlan, a resident of Sorsogon province, told CNN.
Raging floodwaters covered the rooftops of several homes in the district of Bulan, Sorsogon – over 575 kilometers southeast of the capital Manila.
“There were heavy rains and strong winds that came so suddenly,” Garlan said. “And our town normally doesn’t get flooded.”
As soon as the rains started to weaken, Garland and about 15 volunteers teamed up with local rescue authorities to clear up roads and arrange for the delivery of aid.
“We’re worried we won’t get to people in time. There are already children getting colds and coughs, maybe some are also contracting leptospirosis (a bacterial disease),” he said.
Bulan, a town of about 100,000 people, was among the first municipality to declare a state of emergency on Wednesday in anticipation of the storm. It quickly got swept by floods, but luckily, no deaths have been reported.
Across Sorsogon province, pictures shared by emergency response teams showed thick mud blanketing many roads making some parts inaccessible to vehicles.
The death toll around the country continues to rise as blocked roads, choppy waters and strong winds hamper rescue operations and make it risky to reach rural areas by land, sea and air.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos ordered Philippine army assets, including his presidential helicopter, to assist in relief and rescue efforts, according to a statement on Friday.
“By air, land, or sea, we’ll keep the support coming. Together, we will rise again,” Marcos said.
Ravaged by landslides
Talisay in Batangas province, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Manila, was one of the worst-hit towns ravaged by Trami.
Residents in the rural lakeside town are accustomed to disaster, as it sits north of the Taal volcano, one of the country’s most active, which regularly sends plumes of ash in the air and people heed to evacuations.
But no one seemed prepared for the unusually high rainfall brought on from Trami.
Entire families were trapped in the deluge of mudslides and nearly 3,000 homes across the province destroyed.
The provincial governor, Hermilando Mandanas, advised families of the deceased to immediately bury those killed, fearing that another potentially powerful storm, Typhoon Kong-Rey, also known locally as Leon, could soon lash the region again.
A funeral was held on Saturday in the small town’s covered basketball court for the 20 people, including 12 children, who died from landslides, according to local authorities in Talisay.
Raynaldo Dejucos lost all his family members – the youngest among them a two-year-old child – after a landslide engulfed their home in the town, state-run PTV reported.
“I’m trying to stay strong,” Dejucos told PTV. “I can never forget this… I don’t know how long it will take to heal.”
“When I got there, everything was gone. No home, and everywhere there were rocks, mud and scrap pieces of metal sheets were left. Not a single house was left.”
A two-year-old girl was rescued, but all four of her direct family members were killed, leaving her an orphan, PTV reported.
In nearby Albay province, Heinrich Sandrino said that although authorities managed to evacuate those living in vulnerable areas in his town, they were still caught off guard by the extreme volume of rain.
Sandrino said the flood brought in sand, which covered the streets and buried half of the houses and vehicles, making it nearly impossible to dispatch rescuers.
Marcos visited Bicol’s largest province, Camarines Sur, on Saturday to inspect the damage and met with some victims sheltering at an evacuation center.
“Our main problem here is that many areas are still flooded,” he told government officials during a briefing, saying “the amount of water is unmanageable.”
“This is climate change. This is all new, so we have to come up with new solutions too,” Marcos added.
Marcos stressed the need to revisit long-term development projects, particularly the Bicol River Basin Project, to address severe flooding during weather disasters.
On Monday, Trami continued moving west across the South China Sea from the Philippines, lashing central Vietnam, where it killed at least two in the central province of Thua Thien Hue, state media reported.
The region is also bracing for Kong Rey, which has now hit typhoon strength, as it hurdles towards Taiwan this week, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to the Philippines’ northern Luzon island over the next few days.
Southeast Asia is one of the most climate vulnerable regions of the world, experts warn, making it more susceptible to extreme weather like heatwaves, storm surges and floods.
The Philippines, a nation highly susceptible to natural disasters, has seen an increasing number of storms and typhoons with greater severity in recent years.
So far this year, its capital Manila and parts of Luzon have seen devastating flooding as a result of Typhoon Gaemi. Last month, the country was also hit by the region’s most powerful storm this year, Typhoon Yagi, which left dozens dead after sweeping across southern China and Southeast Asia.
