MANILA, 1 December 2004 — Over 350 people were reported killed and officials were still counting after a storm unleashed landslides and flash floods in the eastern Philippines yesterday.

At least 150 people were missing, mostly in Quezon province, east of Manila, where three towns were isolated by landslides and floodwaters caused by Tropical Storm “Winnie” washed away bridges and roads, officials said.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman returned to Manila late yesterday afternoon from an aerial survey of the area and reported that at least 306 people were killed and 150 missing in Quezon province, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) east of Manila.

Rescue officials said 19 people were also killed in Aurora province, which bore the brunt of another severe storm just a week ago. Eight more were killed in Rizal province, and one each in the Manila suburb of Marikina and Camarines Norte province, the Office of Civil Defense reported. Other officials reported that three died in Bulacan province north of Manila.

Helicopter crews struggled to find ground solid enough to land on and dropped food packages to residents huddled on rooftops or high ground. Even as rescuers struggled to save people stranded in three coastal towns of Quezon, the weather bureau warned that a new typhoon was approaching the region from the Pacific Ocean.

“We urge residents in the affected areas to evacuate to safer areas,” warned Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, concurrent chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). He warned that the new typhoon could hit the region early tomorrow.

Winnie is the third typhoon to hit the Philippines in two weeks’ time.

The first one, code-named Typhoon Muifa, killed more than 60 people in provinces just south of Manila. Typhoon Merbok killed about 25 people in Aurora and Nueva Ecija provinces.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was scheduled to visit victims of the new disaster today on her return from a regional summit in Laos.

It will be her third visit to a disaster area in just a week. She flew directly to Camarines Sur province to see Muifa’s victims on her return last Thursday from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile. Before leaving for Laos on Sunday, she went to see Merbok’s victims in Aurora.

A deadly mix of logs and earth dislodged by heavy rain buried several areas in Real, Infanta and Nakar towns in Quezon shortly before midnight after Monday’s storm, rescuers and survivors told AFP.

Raging floodwaters carrying heavy logs knocked down bridges connecting the three towns, isolating them from vehicular traffic.

“The area is not accessible because the bridges connecting them have collapsed,” said local air force commander Col. Alfredo Cayco, who is in charge of flying people in and out of the area. Secretary Soliman said bad weather and blocked roads prevented authorities from delivering relief supplies and rescuing people on rooftops.

“The current is still strong and the water is still high,” she said. “The rains caused the flash floods, yes, but the soil could not hold up the water in the mountains.”

In the village of Maragundon, outside the coastal town of Real in Quezon, workers used a heavy tractor to try to clear a mudslide that blocked a road and partly buried a house. Residents trying to return to damaged homes got off buses and trekked to the town several kilometers away, wading in mud that was waist deep in some places.

Soliman said 114 died in Real town, 100 in Infanta and 92 in General Nakar, all in Quezon. Most of those reported missing were in Real.

Bodies of the dead in Real were brought to the local gymnasium, she said.

TV footage showed residents lining up the bodies of 13 people, including several children, on a muddy roadside in Real. Fallen trees and coconut leaves littered the area.

Reuben Sindac, the police intelligence chief in Quezon, quoted a colleague in Infanta as saying he saw 10-20 bodies floating in the floodwaters that covered the town.

— Additional input from agencies