Philippines: Severe Tropical Storm Trami (Kristine) - Consolidated Rapid Assessment Report (31 October 2024)

Situation Overview

On 22 October, Tropical Cyclone Trami (local name: Kristine), brought heavy to intense rains across the Philippines resulting in widespread flooding and landslides. In the early hours of 24 October, Trami made landfall in Divilacan, Isabela as a Severe Tropical Storm. It exited the Philippines Area of Responsibility (PAR) on 25 October moving towards the West Philippines Sea and made landfall in Vietnam on 27 October. STS Trami/Kristine caused widespread flooding and landslides in several parts of the country, particularly in Region 5, 4A and 2.

More than 7.9m people (2m families) have been affected across 17 out of 18 regions in the country. Around 684.9k have been displaced, of which 250.6k people are in evacuation centres (EC) and 434.3k temporarily staying elsewhere. The number of casualties has risen with 141 reported deaths, 86 injured, and 21 missing. Clean up and recovery efforts are ongoing in areas where flood waters have started to recede, and people have started to return to their houses.

Another Tropical Cyclone with the international name Kong-rey (local name: Leon) entered PAR on 27 October. TC Kong-rey intensified into a super typhoon and its track came close to the Batanes Group of Islands in Luzon on 30 October. Super Typhoon Kong-rey impacted several provinces that had already been affected by STS Trami, particularly Batanes, which is still recovering from the effects of Tropical Cyclone Krathon/Julian in September 2024.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is liaising with national authorities as well as humanitarian partners with local presence on the ground to determine the impact of the tropical cyclone. On 23 October, the Resident Coordinator/ Humanitarian Coordinator received a letter of request for in-country resources from the national government to augment response to the identified needs (hygiene kits, dignity kits, family kits, RH kits, tents and NFIs) in affected areas, particularly Region 5. OCHA and Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) cluster leads were invited to the National Response Cluster meeting, wherein the latter requested HCT cluster leads to coordinate with their respective Government cluster leads.

Since October 26, when the weather improved, the national government has been utilizing air assets to immediately send relief items to the most affected areas, particularly in Region 5. Boats and helicopters are being used to deliver critical food and non-food items to hard-to-reach locations.