Tropical Storm Trami Brings Heavy Flooding to the Philippines

Tropical Storm Trami drenched the Philippines with torrential rain on Wednesday, causing widespread flooding and forcing thousands of people to evacuate from their homes.

The storm was packing winds of 52 miles per hour as it approached the northern Philippines on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It was forecast to make landfall by Thursday morning on Luzon, the most populous island in the country.

The rainfall from Trami, which is known as Kristine in the Philippines, began to intensify on Tuesday, inundating vast areas in the central and northern parts of the country. The Albay province was particularly hard-hit, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

“The worst is yet to come,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Wednesday. “The volumes of water are unprecedented.”

Albay province in the central Philippines received two months’ worth of rainfall in 24 hours, the authorities there told local media. Some neighborhoods were under neck-deep water, civil defense officials said.

More than 7,000 people were evacuated in Quezon province, according to the local authorities. At least one person had been killed in the storm, the Office of Civil Defense said Wednesday.

The storm caused disruptions in many parts of the Philippines, including Manila, the capital. The authorities suspended school classes, businesses were closed, and thousands of cargo workers and passengers were stranded at seaports.

Trami is expected to pass over the northern Philippines by Thursday and move west toward Vietnam and the Chinese island of Hainan, according to a storm track published by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

The Philippines is hit by 20 storms a year, on average, and many of its regions are prone to