At least 115 dead and missing in massive flooding and landslides in Philippines

Talisay: The number of dead and missing in massive flooding and landslides wrought by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has exceeded 100 and the...

Talisay: The number of dead and missing in massive flooding and landslides wrought by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has exceeded 100 and the president said Saturday that many areas remained isolated with people in need of rescue.

Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 81 people dead and 34 others missing in in one of the Southeast Asian archipelago’s deadliest and most destructive storms so far this year, the government’s disaster-response agency said. The death toll was expected to rise as reports come in from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, backed by three backhoes and sniffer dogs, dug up one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province Saturday.

A father, who was waiting for word on his missing 14-year-old daughter, wept as rescuers placed the remains in a black body bag.

Distraught, he followed police officers, who carried the body bag down a mud-strewn village alley to a police van when one weeping resident approaching him to express her sympathies.