dpa
Manila
A new tropical storm entered the Philippines on Sunday as emergency teams rushed more relief supplies to over 5 million people affected by severe tropical storm Trami, which left 90 people dead, the national disaster agency said.
Thirty-six people were reported missing, and over 560,000 were forced to flee their homes as Trami’s heavy rains triggered widespread floods and massive landslides in the Philippines.
"The death toll is increasing fast because reports are now coming in,” said Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno, executive director of the national disaster agency.
Most of the victims died from landslides and floods in province of Batangas and the eastern region of Bicol, the same areas that could be affected by the new storm Kong-Rey, locally called Leon.
Kong-Rey was packing maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 80 km/h, the weather bureau said. It was moving westward from the country’s eastern coast at 30 km/h.
Kong-Rey was not expected to make landfall over the Philippines and would cross the country to the south-western portion of the Ryukyu Islands in Japan.
The storm was expected to intensify in the next 24 hours and could reach severe tropical storm category on Monday and typhoon category on Tuesday.
"We are on high alert for the new storm,” said Edgar Posadas, spokesman for the disaster agency. "We are also keeping an eye on Trami because it might loop back to the Philippines, and we are sending additional supplies to the affected areas.” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said trucks of rice and other food supplies arrived in the Bicol region on Sunday morning to ensure that affected families "have what they need to begin getting back on their feet.” "By air, land, or sea, we’ll keep the support coming,” he said in a post on Facebook and Instagram. "Together, we will rise again.”