Severe tropical storm “Kristine” (international name Trami) submerged villages and killed more than 20 persons as rescuers raced Thursday to reach residents stranded by fast-rising floodwaters in the main Philippine island of Luzon.

Schools and government offices were shuttered across the northern Philippines as the storm made landfall after leaving a trail of destruction up the eastern coast.

In the hardest-hit Naga City and Nabua town in the Bicol region in southern Luzon, rescuers used boats to rescue residents stranded on rooftops.

“They sought assistance through (Facebook) posts and that’s how we learned about them,” Bicol police spokeswoman Luisa Calubaquib told AFP.

“As of 7 a.m., we have 20 dead (throughout the Bicol region),” regional police chief Brig. Gen. Andre Dizon told reporters Thursday morning, attributing most of the deaths to drowning and landslides.

A national weather service advisory issued at 2 p.m. tracked the eye of the storm over the Ilocos region with maximum sustained wind speeds of 95 kilometers per hour at the center and gusts up to 115 kph.

“The rain is not stopping, so the floods are going up fast. We have received countless reports asking for rescue,” Batangas province rescue official April Serrano told AFP.

A hospital in Lemery, Batangas was forced to turn away patients after its wards and emergency rooms were flooded, according to the provincial health office.

On Luzon’s western coast, a surge warning was raised in Pangasinan province at around 2 p.m with officials estimating waves as high as two meters or 6.6 feet.

Month’s worth of rain

More than 30,000 persons were forced to evacuate in Bicol on Wednesday, police said, as “unexpectedly high” flooding turned streets into rivers.

Lorie de la Cruz of weather bureau Pagasa said a month’s worth of rain fell in the region in a 24-hour window from 8 a.m. on 22 October until the following morning, with Camarines Sur province and Legazpi City in Albay province particularly hard hit.

In a Malacañang briefing on Thursday, Office of Civil Defense (OCD) spokesperson Director Edgar Posadas said the situation in Bicol remained a priority.

He said the OCD regional office was facing challenges in accessing some areas of the province due to flooding.

“There are enough resources but the flood is high — these are in Naga City and Camarines Sur towns like Presentacion, Bula and others nearby,” Posadas said.

He said rescuers had reached the municipalities of Polangui and Libon in Albay.

On Thursday, rescuers were forced to halt the search for a missing fisherman after a boat sunk in the waters off Bulacan province, the local disaster agency said.

“Although it’s now cloudy in the area, the water current is still strong. We were forced to stop the search and rescue,” Bulacan province rescuer Charina Lingad said.

A day earlier, 11 people drowned in floodwaters in Naga, according to local police chief Erwin Rebellion.

In Quezon province, an elderly woman drowned, while a toddler was killed after falling into a flooded canal, police said.

The OCD reported one person was killed by a falling tree branch.

Air assets deployed

The OCD said air assets of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were ready for deployment to aid in relief operations.

“I have seen the list of equipment; we have 17 air assets prepositioned at Villamor air base and in Cebu which are readily deployable weather permitting,” Posadas said.

On Wednesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the use of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites to respond to Kristine. The bases the Philippines shares with the United States are spread around the country and are equipped for disaster response.

Food distributed

In the Palace briefing, Secretary Rex Gatchalian said the Department of Social Welfare and Development had distributed family food packs.

“We had 170,000 family food packs on the ground in Region V (Bicol). As of this morning, we still had 121,000 packs and local government units continued the distribution,” he said.

He added that 100,000 family food packs were scheduled to be delivered to Bicol.