MANILA, Philippines – Heavy rains from an approaching tropical storm have deluged the eastern Philippines, causing widespread flooding that has killed at least nine people, trapped others on roofs and sparked frantic appeals for help, officials said Wednesday.
The government has closed public schools and government offices – except those urgently needed for disaster response – across the main island of Luzon to protect millions of people as Tropical Storm Trami approaches from the Pacific.
At least nine people died in five northeastern provinces and the hard-hit city of Naga before the storm made landfall on the northeastern coast of the Philippines. Police and local authorities said most of the deaths were due to drownings and landslides, adding that about seven people were missing.
“People have been stuck on the roofs of their homes for several hours,” former Vice President Leni Robredo, a resident of the northeastern city of Naga, wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “Many of our emergency trucks have been stranded due to flooding.”
Coast guard personnel have been rescuing residents of flooded villages in the eastern provinces of Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes and outlying regions since Tuesday, but provincial authorities said the number of rescue boats and personnel was insufficient.
The storm was last tracked about 175 kilometers (109 miles) east of the town of Echague in Isabela province. It strengthened with sustained winds of 95 km/h (59 mph) per hour and gusts to 115 km/h (71 mph).
The storm was forecast to hit the coast of Isabela from Wednesday evening into early Thursday, then move through northern Luzon before reaching the South China Sea late Thursday.
State forecasters said the wide band of rainfall could dump up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rainwater in a single day in the most vulnerable provinces in its path.
Thousands of residents were evacuated to shelters in northeastern provinces. Thunderstorm warnings were issued in more than 30 northern and central provinces, including the densely populated capital Manila, which was not in the storm’s direct path but could be lashed by heavy rains.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. canceled all its meetings on Wednesday and called an emergency meeting to discuss disaster relief efforts, Communications Secretary Cesar Chavez said.
“I’m afraid the worst is yet to come, so let’s all prepare,” Marcos said.
During the meeting, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said military aircraft and ships would be used for evacuations and disaster response. He said friendly countries, including Singapore, could provide additional airlift power if needed.
Thousands of passengers and cargo workers were stranded at several seaports after the Coast Guard said it had suspended ferry services between islands and banned fishing vessels from sailing into increasingly rough seas.
“We need national intervention,” MP Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur province told radio station DZRH, saying his flood-prone province had about 50 rescue boats but needed about 200.
In Quezon province, Governor Angelina Tan said flooding in some areas reached depths of up to 3 meters and at least 8,000 residents were evacuated.
About 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines every year. The archipelago also lies in the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a region along much of the Pacific coast where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the Southeast Asian country one of the most disaster-prone in the world.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the world’s strongest tropical cyclones on record, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, leveled entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million people in the central Philippines.