MANILA, Oct 25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Philippine rescue workers battled
floodwaters Friday to reach residents still trapped on the roofs of their
homes as Tropical Storm Trami moved out to sea after killing at least 40
people.

Tens of thousands remained displaced after fleeing floods driven by a
torrential downpour that dumped two months' worth of rainfall in just two
days in some areas.

"Many are still trapped on the roofs of their homes and asking for help,"
Andre Dizon, police director for the hard-hit Bicol region, told AFP. "We are
hoping that the floods will subside today, since the rain has stopped."

He added that a shortage of rubber boats was "the greatest challenge" but
that more were on their way.

As Trami departed the Philippines in the early hours, traveling west over the
South China Sea, the storm's death toll swelled as fresh reports of victims
emerged.

In Batangas province south of the capital Manila, police staff sergeant
Nelson Cabuso told AFP six unidentified bodies had been found in Sampaloc
village.

"The area was hit by a flash flood yesterday. Our people are still in the
area to check if there are other casualties," he said.

Many areas of the province remained inaccessible to search and rescue teams,
local media reported.

Another five people were killed in a flash flood in the coastal village of
Subic Ilaya, police corporal Alvin de Leon said.

While Manila was seemingly spared the kind of heavy flooding that accompanied
Typhoon Gaemi in July, AFP reporters on Friday saw a subdivision south of the
capital that was largely submerged.

- 'Two months' worth of rain -

Government offices and schools across the main island of Luzon remained
shuttered Friday, and storm surge warnings were still in place along the west
coast, with potential waves as high as two metres.

State weather agency specialist Jofren Habaluyas told AFP that Batangas
province had seen "two months' worth of rain", or 391.3 millimetres, fall
over October 24 and 25.

An official tally late Thursday reported 193,000 people evacuated in the face
of flooding that turned streets into rivers and half-buried some towns in
sludge-like volcanic sediment set loose by the storm.

Many of those were in the Bicol region, where more than 30,000 fled Wednesday
alone in the face of "unexpectedly high" flooding.

Rescuers in the region's Naga city and Nabua municipality used boats to reach
residents stranded on rooftops, many of whom sought assistance via Facebook
posts.

In the Batangas town of Lemery, about 97 kilometres (60 miles) south of
Manila, a hospital was forced to turn away patients as its wards and
emergency rooms were flooded.

And the search for a missing fisherman whose boat sunk in the waters off
Bulacan province west of Manila remained suspended on Friday due to strong
currents, the local disaster office said.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding
waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of
people.

But a recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are
increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and
lasting longer over land due to climate change.