TALISAY, Philippines (AP) — As a storm pounded his rural home below a ridge with rain and wind, Raynaldo Dejucos asked his wife and five children to stay indoors and keep safe from a lightning strike, slippery roads or catching a fever. One thing the 36-year-old fish pen worker didn't mention was landslides. In the lakeside town of Talisay in the northeastern Philippines, the 40,000 inhabitants have never experienced them in their lifetime.
About four hours after leaving home mid-morning last Thursday to check on his fish cages in the nearby Lake Taal, an avalanche of rainwater, mud, boulders and toppled trees cascaded down the steep ridge behind his home and buried about a dozen houses, including his. Talisay, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Manila, was one of several towns ravaged by Tropical Storm Trami — the deadliest of 11 storms to hit the Philippines this year. The storm veered toward Vietnam across the South China Sea after leaving at least 126 people dead and missing.
More than 5.7 million people stood in the storm's path in northern and central provinces. “My wife was breast feeding our 2-month-old baby,” Dejucos told The Associated Press Saturday in a municipal basketball gym, where the five white coffins of his entire family were laid side by side with those of a dozen other landslide victims.
“My children were holding each other on the bed when we found them.” "I was calling out the names of my wife and our children repeatedly. Where are you? .