Philippines braces for Tropical Storm Matmo as death toll from Typhoon Rammasun hits 77

The disaster-weary Philippines braced for a second severe storm in five days yesterday as the death toll from Typhoon Rammasun surged to 77, officials said.

While Tropical Storm Matmo was not forecast to hit the main island of Luzon, the weather service warned it would still bring heavy rains to the area over the weekend, along with the threat of flash floods or landslides.

"[Matmo] has entered the Philippine area of responsibility. We should get ready now before the heavy rains fall," President Benigno Aquino's spokeswoman Abigail Valte said in a government radio broadcast.

The threat from Matmo came as the country picked up the pieces from Rammasun, the first major storm of the wet season and the deadliest since Super Typhoon Haiyan killed about 7,300 people last November.

Rammasun sliced across the country's economic heartland, including Manila, on Tuesday, killing 77 people and wrecking more than 111,000 homes, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in an updated tally.

The death toll had stood at 54 a day earlier, before casualty reports from remote areas came in.