At least 126 dead and missing in massive flooding and landslides in Philippines

TALISAY, Philippines (AP) — The number of dead and missing in massive flooding and landslides wrought by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has reached nearly 130 and the president said Saturday that many areas remained isolated with people in need of rescue.

Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 85 people dead and 41 others missing in in one of the Southeast Asian archipelago’s deadliest and most destructive storms so far this year, the government’s disaster-response agency said. The death toll was expected to rise as reports come in from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, backed by three backhoes and sniffer dogs, dug up one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province Saturday.

A father, who was waiting for word on his missing 14-year-old daughter, wept as rescuers placed the remains in a black body bag. Distraught, he followed police officers, who carried the body bag down a mud-strewn village alley to a police van when one weeping resident approaching him to express her sympathies.

The man said he was sure it was his daughter, but authorities needed to do checks to confirm the identity of the villager dug up in the mound.

In a nearby basketball gym at the town center, more than a dozen white coffins were laid side by side, bearing the remains of those found in the heaps of mud, boulders and trees that cascaded Thursday afternoon down the steep slope of a wooded ridge in Talisay's Sampaloc village.

President Ferdinand Marcos, who inspected another hard-hit region southeast of Manila Saturday, said the unusually large volume of rainfall dumped by the storm — including in some areas that saw one to two months’ worth of rainfall in just 24 hours — overwhelmed flood controls in provinces lashed by Trami.

"The water was just too much,” Marcos told reporters.

“We’re not done yet with our rescue work,” he said. “Our problem here, there are still many areas that remained flooded and could not be accessed even big trucks."

His administration, Marcos said, would plan to start work on a major flood control project that can meet the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.

More than 5 million people were in the path of the storm, including nearly half a million who mostly fled to more than 6,300 emergency shelters in several provinces, the government agency said.

In an emergency Cabinet meeting, Marcos raised concerns over reports by government forecasters that the storm — the 11th to hit the Philippines this year — could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea.

The storm was forecast to batter Vietnam over the weekend if it would not veer off course.

The Philippine government shut down schools and government offices for the third day on Friday to keep millions of people safe on the main northern island of Luzon. Inter-island ferry services were also suspended, stranding thousands.

Weather has cleared in many areas on Saturday, allowing cleanup work in most areas.

Each year, about 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines, a Southeast Asian archipelago which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and flattened entire villages.

Villagers gather to pay respects to family and friends who died after a landslide hit their homes triggered by Tropical Storm Trami, in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Marcelino Aringo speaks near his damaged house after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami struck homes, leaving several villagers dead in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A resident uses shovels as they clean out mud from their house after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami struck homes in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Family and their friend grieve as they watch over their loved ones at a basketball court where the coffins of landslide victims were placed after Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Rescuers search for bodies after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami struck homes in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A rabbit doll sits on a mud-covered sofa after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami struck homes in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A resident cleans out mud from his damaged home as it was struck by a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Rescuers carry a body after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami struck homes in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jim Gomez)

A man sits on a damaged car after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Villagers gather to pay respect to family and friends who died after a landslide hit their homes triggered by Tropical Storm Trami, in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Rescuers carry a body during retrieval operations after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami, struck homes in Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jim Gomez)

Kervin Torres grieves while rescuers recovered a body under the rubbles of a landslide after Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents clear out mud from their homes after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents try to clear out mud from their belongings after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents ride motorcycles along a mud covered road after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami, recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024 . (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A resident passes by toppled trees after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A villager pays respect to family and friends after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Marcelino Aringo stands on top of a damaged house after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024 . (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents try to recover personal belongings from their damaged home after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami recently struck Talisay, Batangas province, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Ex-rugby league international Kane Evans won’t have to worry about the extortion threats any more or be concerned about his family finding out about his sexuality before he’s ready to tell them.

In a television interview Monday with Channel Nine’s “100% Footy,” Evans said he was gay and that he felt like a weight had lifted off him when he finally could talk about it publicly.

Evans is the first high-level rugby league player in Australia to come out as gay since Ian Roberts in 1995.

Evans played 131 games in the elite National Rugby League from 2014-2021 for clubs including the Sydney Roosters, Parramatta and the New Zealand-based Warriors before finishing off his professional career in England in 2023. He played 13 international games for Fiji.

“I had three goals in life: It was to play NRL, to buy my parents a house, and then I wanted to top myself, because I was living in denial from a young age,” the 34-year-old Evans said in the television interview. “I know that I’m gay. But I went down every other avenue to sort of build up these walls ... to escape who I am.”

After struggling with addiction and suicidal thoughts as he dealt with his sexuality as a younger man and professional footballer, and then experiencing homelessness after a business collapse in his post-rugby league career, Evans finally got the support he needed.

Evans said it was only after talking to Joe Galuvao, a former player who works with the Rugby League Players’ Association, that he realized help was so close.

“I thank God that he came and visited me and got me into rehab with the help of the RLPA,” Evans said.

Others in the football fraternity reached out, Evans said. Like Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who helped pay the bills while Evans was in rehabilitation and invited him back into the club.

“He called me just to let me know that the Roosters are still my home and they’ve got my back, whatever I’m facing,” Evans said. “That meant the world to me. He took me, my best friend, and one of my mentors to Roosters HQ a week after I got out of rehab."

Evans had planned to come out to his family before the television interview aired.

“I've been fighting a war within since I was about 15 years old and it's not sustainable,” he said. “I’m here today to show people that you don’t have to live like that. Even now I feel a bit more free, just by saying it out loud, I’ve brought it to the light."

Evans said he'd had “people blackmail me … I’ve had people try to deflect their problems by trying to out me. And it just built up a lot of shame, and fear and guilt within myself.”

“Now I’ve spoken about it, I’ve shattered all those chains. They’ve lost their power," he added. “I feel like coming and speaking to you today, fear, shame, guilt -- all of that, I’ve cut ties with all that. I feel peace within.”

Roberts, who played for Australia in the 1990s, described Evans' interview as an “extraordinary moment” and “I was in tears watching.”

“I am so proud of him,” Roberts told News Corp. “Everything he was saying ... I thought ‘this poor kid,’ I know exactly where he is in his head, what he is going through, the extremes of uncertainty of your own sense of self and your sense of other people.”

Andrew Johns, one of rugby league's greatest players, said the bravery Evans had shown would be encouraging for other people.

“To come out and tell the world, especially the rugby league world, it's incredibly strong," Johns told the Nine network. “There's going to be so much love for him in the rugby league — he's going to save a lot of lives.”

Johns said there were a lot of young people struggling with their sexuality and when “they see someone like Kane and the pain he's gone through, and the strength he's shown, it'll help them stand up and talk to parents, or people close to them.”

“So Kane, well done mate," he added. "We all love you. Incredibly proud of you.”

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Kane Evans of the Parramatta Eels, top, is tackled by Bayley Sironen of the South Sydney Rabbitohs during their National Rugby League match between in Sydney, on Aug. 27, 2020. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image via AP)