At least 36 people are missing after Tropical Storm Trami forced more than half a million people to flee their homes.

As the death toll from Tropical Storm Trami reaches 100, rescue teams in the Philippines dive into a lake and comb isolated villages to locate dozens of missing people.

The death toll in Batangas province, south of Manila, rose to 55 as of Sunday, provincial police chief Jacinto Malinao told the AFP news agency.

Trami, which hit the Philippines on October 24, was among the deadliest storms to hit the Southeast Asian country this year.

At least 36 more people are missing since the tropical storm forced more than half a million people to flee their homes, according to the national disaster agency.

Police in the hardest-hit Bicol region in the central Philippines also recorded 38 deaths, mostly due to drowning.

“We are still receiving a lot of calls and we are trying to save as many people as possible,” Bicol regional police chief Andre Dizon told AFP. “Hopefully there will be no more deaths”

Dizon added that “many residents” in Camarines Sur district were still trapped on the roofs and upper floors of their homes.

Two people died in separate electrocution and drowning incidents in Cavite province, police said.

According to police and disaster agency sources, five more bodies were found in other provinces, bringing the total number to 100.

“A higher death toll is possible in the coming days, as rescue teams are now able to reach previously isolated places,” Edgar Posadas of the Office of Civil Defense said, according to media reports.

The weather cleared in many regions on Saturday and Sunday, allowing cleaning and search efforts.

Police, coast guard and marine diving team were searching for a family of seven at Taal Lake in Batangas on Sunday.

Most of the deaths in Batangas are attributed to landslides caused by rain.

While more than 20 bodies were pulled from mud piles, rocks and fallen trees, police said at least 20 people were still missing in the state.

About 20 major storms and typhoons hit the archipelago country or surrounding waters every year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.

At least 11 people died when Tropical Storm Yagi hit the country in September.

A recent study showed that due to climate change, storms in the Asia Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying faster and lasting longer over land.