TORRENTIAL rain ahead of an approaching tropical storm swamped eastern Philippine cities and towns overnight, causing widespread flooding.

The deluge led to people being trapped in their homes, some on roofs, and sparked frantic appeals for rescue boats and trucks, officials said yesterday.

The government shut down non-essential public schools and government offices on the entire main island of Luzon to protect millions of people as Tropical Storm Trami blew closer from the Pacific.

At least one person died after being hit by a fallen tree branch in central Masbate province, while seven others were reported missing, including three men who sailed to fish in the high seas from Masbate but haven’t returned, officials said.

“People have been stuck on roofs of their houses for several hours now,” former vice-president Leni Robredo, who lives in the north-eastern city of Naga, said in a post on Facebook. 

“We need national intervention,” Representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur province told DZRH radio network, saying his flood-prone province has about 50 rescue boats but needs about 200 due to the widespread appeals from villagers to be rescued.

The storm was forecast to hit Aurora’s coast Wednesday night to early Thursday, then barrel across northern Luzon’s mountain range, valleys and plains before exiting to the South China Sea later in the week.