REAL, Philippines, Dec. 4 -- Helicopters delivered food to famished survivors and picked up casualties as the weather cleared on Saturday in villages ravaged by back-to-back storms that killed 640 people and left nearly 400 missing in the northern Philippines.
Officials, worried over rapidly dwindling relief supplies, asked for more food, clothes, medicine and construction materials to help thousands of villagers deal with the devastation from the storm and subsequent typhoon.
In the worst-hit coastal town of Real in Quezon province, about 45 miles east of Manila, hundreds of residents lined up for food at a school turned into a relief center.
"If there's a continuous flow of support, we can make it," Arsenio Ramallosa, the mayor of Real, said as he supervised the distribution of food and other supplies. "But at the moment, the government's relief supplies would only be good for three days."
Official reports released earlier said more than 650 people had died in the storms, but the latest tally put the confirmed death toll at 640.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, her boots muddied after visiting typhoon-ravaged areas, received loud applause from residents of Real, where about 240 people were killed and 144 were missing.
Reinforcing a widely held belief that years of illegal logging had exacerbated the impact of the storms, Arroyo told reporters: "I'm canceling all [logging] permits here and suspending issuance of all others."
Arroyo said illegal loggers would be prosecuted like terrorists, kidnappers, drug traffickers and other hardened criminals. She called for unity in dealing with the disaster.
