The death toll from a powerful typhoon that lashed the northern Philippines climbed to at least 24 Monday after rescue officials retrieved more bodies from ravaged areas. 

At least 61 others were still missing after typhoon storm Unding (international codename Muifa) slammed into the Philippines over the weekend with winds of 110 kilometers per hour and gusts up to 140 kph, capsizing boats, damaging farmland, and injuring up to 79 people, officials said.

The typhoon toppled trees, electricity and telephone lines as it sliced through the Bicol region on the main island of Luzon before blowing westward on its way out of the country toward Viet Nam yesterday, the Office of Civil Defence said.

Tropical storm Unding unexpectedly changed course and battered the islands of Marinduque, Mindoro and Coron in northern, central and western Philippines on Friday, destroying or damaging nearly 27,000 houses and affecting 10,818 families or 60,533 people, the office said in a report.

About 60,000 people were evacuated but many later returned home, officials said.

More than 40 fishing boats and tugboats capsized or went missing in the provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Quezon and Romblon, leaving 61 people missing.

Five people drowned, two died of hypothermia and one man was killed by a falling tree, while 16 others died of still undetermined causes.

The southern section of Mindoro was "heavily devastated" with houses torn down and power and telephone services cut off, the report said.

Damage to agriculture, infrastructure and private property was estimated at 73 million pesos (US$1.3 million).

Authorities are still exerting efforts to rescue the 58 fishermen missing at sea for two days after the storm slammed south of the main island of Luzon.

Unding sank or capsized 48 fishing boats off Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, the Coron island group and off the Bondoc Peninsula near Bicol on Saturday, killing two and leaving 58 fishermen missing, the office said.

Thirty-four other crew members were rescued by other vessels.

Telephone services are now operational, power supply is partly restored and roads are now passable, it added.

The Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council and other agencies have made relief assistance efforts.

Unding is now moving on its way west in the South China Sea, but the weather bureau said they are monitoring an active low pressure area in the Philippine Sea east of Luzon, which they said could develop into a storm or typhoon.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said food and assistance were being rushed to the heavily hit areas.

"We will start giving emergency shelter assistance. Many houses have lost their roofs, if not totally damaged," Soliman told reporters.

According to official figures, an annual average of about 500 people are killed by the about 20 typhoons or storms that hit the Southeast Asian archipelago every year.

(China Daily November 23, 2004)