MANILA: The Philippines braced itself on Wednesday for the impact of Tropical Storm Trami, with thousands of people evacuated from their homes as authorities warned of an unprecedented volume of rainfall and flooding in the coming days.
The 11th cyclone to hit the country this year, Trami — locally known as Kristine — is affecting nearly all the Luzon and Visayas islands, as well as parts of Mindanao.
It has caused severe flooding and landslides in the country’s east even before making landfall, which is forecast to take place on Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.
“The worst is yet to come, I’m afraid ... The volumes of water are unprecedented,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a briefing with disaster management authorities and the military.
“I’m feeling a little helpless here ... All we can do is sit tight, wait, hope, pray that there’s not too much damage, that there are no casualties. And then go in as soon and as quickly as possible with as much as we can to alleviate the effects, especially first to the population. And then, afterwards, we will take care of all the other infrastructure: the power, the roads.”
Government offices and schools across Luzon, the country’s largest island, have been temporarily shut down, and four provinces — Quezon and three in neighboring Bicol Region — have declared a state of calamity.
In Bicol alone, more than 47,500 people had to leave their homes and were evacuated to safety. At least two people have been reported dead and five missing.
“Because of the 24 hours of almost non-stop rains, we had 12,226 families or 47,583 people evacuated here in the Bicol region. So far, what has been reported to us are two dead,” Office of Civil Defense in Bicol spokesperson Gremil Naz said in a radio broadcast.
“We also have one reported injured and five reported missing fishermen.”
The Philippines is the country most at risk from natural disasters, according to the 2024 World Risk Report.
Every year millions of people are affected by storms and typhoons, which have lately been more unpredictable and extreme due to the changing climate.
Last month, more than a dozen people were killed when Typhoon Yagi hit the country’s east.
