At least 126 dead and missing in massive floods and landslides in the Philippines

TALISAY, Philippines (AP) — The number of dead and missing in the massive flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has reached nearly 130, and the president said Saturday that many areas remained isolated and people were being rescued would have to be.

Trami blew away from northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 85 dead and 41 more missing in one of the Southeast Asian archipelago's deadliest and most destructive storms so far this year, the government's disaster management agency said. The death toll was expected to rise as reports came in from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, assisted by three backhoes and sniffer dogs, unearthed one of the last two missing villagers in the seaside town of Talisay in Batangas province on Saturday.

A father waiting for news of his missing 14-year-old daughter cried as rescuers placed the remains in a black body bag. Dismayed, he followed police officers carrying the body bag through a mud-covered village lane to a police car when a crying local resident approached him to express her condolences.

The man said he was sure it was his daughter, but authorities needed to carry out checks to confirm the identity of the villager unearthed in the hill.

At a nearby basketball hall in the city center, more than a dozen white coffins were lined up side by side with the remains of those found in the piles of mud, boulders and trees that fell down the steep slope of a forested ridge in Talisay's Sampaloc village on Thursday afternoon.

President Ferdinand Marcos, inspecting another hard-hit region southeast of Manila on Saturday, said the storm's unusually large amount of rainfall – including in some areas where one to two months' worth of rain fell in just 24 hours – had overwhelmed flood control authorities in the Trami-swept provinces.

“There was just too much water,” Marcos told reporters.

“We are not finished with our rescue work yet,” he said. “Our problem here is that there are still many areas that are flooded and cannot even be reached by large trucks.”

His government, Marcos said, plans to begin work on a major flood control project that can address the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.

More than five million people were in the storm's path, including nearly half a million who mostly fled to more than 6,300 shelters in several provinces, the government agency said.

In an emergency Cabinet meeting, Marcos expressed concern over reports from government meteorologists that the storm – the 11th to hit the Philippines this year – could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea.

The storm was forecast to devastate Vietnam over the weekend if it did not veer off course.

The Philippine government closed schools and government offices for a third day on Friday to ensure the safety of millions of people on the northern main island of Luzon. Ferry services between the islands were also suspended, leaving thousands stranded.

On Saturday the weather cleared up in many areas, allowing cleanup work to be carried out in most areas.

Every year, about 20 storms and typhoons devastate the Philippines, a Southeast Asian archipelago that lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and leveled entire villages.