December 3, 2004
By CARLOS H.CONDE

DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Dec. 3 - Nearly a thousand people are dead or missing in flash floods and landslides that have devastated a large section of the northern Philippines, rescue officials said.

The deaths were set off by a storm that hit the northeast part of the Philippines early this week. A new typhoon entered the country today, hampering search and rescue efforts in areas earlier destroyed by the storm.

The military confirmed 492 fatalities by tonight, most of them from only three coastal towns in the eastern province of Quezon. About 400 others are missing, Agence France-Presse reported.

The typhoon, with winds of up to 136 miles per hour, was the fourth storm to visit the country in the past two weeks. In Manila, the typhoon brought heavy rains that inundated flood-prone areas. Alert levels have been raised in most of the provinces of the main island of Luzon.

The Coast Guard has barred all vessels from sailing, while airlines canceled a number of flights. Several provinces lost power and communication lines have been knocked down.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has suspended work in government offices in metropolitan Manila and nearby areas. The president, who visited one devastated town today, sent four helicopters from the presidential fleet to help in the rescue efforts after the typhoon's winds prevented military aircraft from flying.

Soldiers traveled on foot to deliver food and medicine to villages cut off by floods and the mudslides. The social-welfare department reported that some isolated communities were running out of food and medical supplies.

Mrs. Arroyo said illegal logging was to blame for the landslides and floods, and she ordered a crackdown on the loggers, assigning a former intelligence chief of the military to head the campaign.

Environmentalists, however, said that logging, both legal and illegal, caused widespread deforestation, saying only 13 percent of the country's forests are still in existence.

About 20 typhoons and storms occur every year in the Philippines, and disasters like this week's are common. More than 7,000 people died in 1991 after a storm set off huge landslides in central Philippines.

Since then, environmentalists have been warning the government that similar disasters could occur if logging went on. But illegal logging continues, often with the cooperation of corrupt environmental and law enforcement officials.

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