MANILA, 4 December 2004 — With floods receding, rescuers raced to deliver food to famished survivors in northeastern Philippine villages isolated by back-to-back storms that left more than 650 people dead and almost 400 missing.

While Typhoon Nanmadol, the fourth to hit the Philippines in two weeks’ time, aggravated the floods and landslides caused earlier this week by Tropical Storm Winnie, officials heaved a sigh of relief that only 35 people have so far been reported killed.

Casualties from the typhoon appeared to be low because people were better prepared after three major storms in two weeks.

Soldiers who reached an isolated Pacific Ocean village, however, reported finding about 100 dead, Maj. Gen. Romeo Tolentino told ABS-CBN television.

It was unclear whether the dead in Dumingan, in Aurora province, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Manila, died in Monday’s storm or yesterday’s typhoon. “Our soldiers now are helping the populace to recover the survivors and bury the dead,” said Tolentino, the regional military commander.

He said landslides were blocking the road to the coastal village.

“There were landslides and our civilians were going hungry,” he said. “Some were wet. So they are really pitiful.”

The typhoon claimed at least 30 lives in Aurora province, including 25 in a landslide, the Office of Civil Defense reported.

In the worst-hit town of Real, in nearby Quezon province, TV images showed bodies buried beneath mud and debris with only the soles of their feet jutting out. Survivors described the stench of rotting bodies.

Some 170,000 have fled their homes for higher ground. Health authorities urged local officials to bury the dead quickly to avoid disease.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appealed to the nation to “come together ... (and) reach out to those who need help.”

“We need one great heave to deliver the relief supplies, find the missing, rescue the isolated, feed the hungry and shelter the homeless,” Arroyo said in a televised statement.

The brunt of the devastation was wrought by a tropical storm that blew through northeastern provinces late Monday, killing at least 527 people, military Chief of Staff Gen. Efren Abu said yesterday.

Hardest hit was Quezon province, where 484 bodies have been recovered and 352 people were still missing, he said.

The Office of Civil Defense said about 35 Nanmadol victims were killed by landslides, drowning, exposure and falling trees and power lines while 13 were missing, all in the northern province of Nueva Vizcaya.

Some 400 bodies had been buried in mass graves in the three worst-hit towns of Quezon province because the 200 body bags and 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of lime preservative which had been supplied were not enough, said Ladislao Yuchongco, director of the Health Department’s national health emergency management.

Additional input from agencies