MANILA (UPDATE) - Authorities on Wednesday rushed to landslide-hit areas as the weather began to clear, with the number of "presumed dead" due to Christmas storm Usman rising to 85, a disaster management official said.

Usman is emerging as one of the deadliest storms of 2018 after Super typhoon Ompong (Mangkhut), which killed 82 people according to an official count or as many as 100 according to an Agence France-Presse tally.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

The death toll from Usman could still rise as rescuers reach isolated areas from Wednesday. Large swaths of Luzon, some still reeling from Usman, were inundated from New Year's Eve due to the Northeast Monsoon or "amihan."

Those "presumed dead" due to Usman are still being verified, said National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokesperson Edgar Posadas.

Some residents in mountainside villages did not heed NDRRMC's call to evacuate before Usman hit land over the weekend, Posadas said.

While it brought heavy rains, Usman's winds were not typhoon strength and it dissipated into a low pressure system after it hit land.

"Siguro kailangan pa nating tutukan iyun, iyung action na gusto nating makuha sa ating mga kababayan, iyung kapag sinabi sa 'yo, huwag ka nang magdalawang isip, lumikas na," told radio DZMM.

(We need to focus on that, the action that we want to get from the public, where they would no longer hesitate when they are told to evacuate.)

Twenty people were still missing as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, while the storm also left 40 people injured, he said.

Bilang ng narekober na patay sa landslide sa Sagñay, Camarines Sur, umabot na sa 30 katao | Ulat ni @zhandercayabyab pic.twitter.com/7YUfxNuSle

— DZMM TeleRadyo (@DZMMTeleRadyo) January 1, 2019

Kuwento ng isang residente, muntik na siyang malibing nang buhay kasama ang kaniyang anak sa landslide sa Sagñay, Camarines Sur | via @zhandercayabyab pic.twitter.com/5OcagtyIte

— DZMM TeleRadyo (@DZMMTeleRadyo) January 1, 2019

In Sagñay, Camarines Sur, where landslides buried at least 50 houses, authorities recovered 30 bodies and were no longer hoping to pull out survivors, the municipal disaster office said.

Roads leading to Sagñay's Sitio Garang, Barangay Patitinan were cut off by landslides. Disaster and coast guard officials will attempt to reach the village by boat on Wednesday morning, a DZMM report said.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

Nine bodies, meanwhile, have been retrieved in Tiwi, Albay as of Wednesday, with 3 of those bodies already accounted for, disaster management official Claudio Yucot told ANC.

Landslides also blocked relief goods from reaching 4 barangays in Albay province, said Governor Francis Bichara.

Authorities will also attempt to reach these areas by boat despite rough waves, he told DZMM.

The storm left at least 14 dead and 19 injured in the province, he said.

• Camarines Norte, Albay under state of calamity

Some 24,000 people remained in evacuation centers across Bicol, Eastern Visayas and Mimaropa, said Posadas.

The tropical depression left P343 million in agricultural damage in Bicol alone, he asaid.

About 20 storms batter the Philippines every year. In November 2013, super typhoon Haiyan left 7,360 people dead or missing after it lashed coastal communities with the strongest winds on record.

-- With a report from Zhander Cayabyab, ABS-CBN News