One of the most destructive storms in recent years, Ketsana wreaked havoc in the Philippines at the weekend while still a tropical storm, then strengthened over the South China Sea to batter Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

The Philippines early Thursday raised the number of confirmed dead from Ketsana to 277, Vietnam to 92 and Cambodia to 14, with nearly three million people affected. No casualties were reported from neighbouring Laos.

In Manila, nearly 700,000 people swamped makeshift government-run shelters amid fears that a storm east of the Philippines could develop into a 'super typhoon' and lash areas still reeling from Ketsana.

"We are dealing with a very strong typhoon, so we should be at the highest level of preparedness," state weather bureau spokesman Nathaniel Cruz said as Typhoon Parma churned towards the Philippines, with landfall expected Saturday.

Parma was packing gusts of up to 185 kilometres per hour (115 miles per hour). The government defines a super typhoon as one with sustained winds of 175-200 kph (110-125 mph) and the potential to cause heavy damage.

Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on Manila and surrounding areas, submerging most of the capital.

The number of people known to have been affected by Ketsana in the Philippines rose to 2.5 million on Thursday, the government said.

Vietnam, meanwhile, intensified efforts to get food and water to stranded Ketsana victims, which has been downgraded to a tropical depression since heading into Laos on Wednesday.

A sea of brown flood water surrounded houses in Quang Nam province, where the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday, with few signs of life in the area, observed an AFP reporter on board a Vietnamese army helicopter mercy flight.

"It's very difficult to describe my feelings," said an air force colonel over the noise of the aircraft. "We give them the goods and then we have to go away."

Residents in the province have complained that help has been slow to reach them, while officials said the scale of the disaster made aid delivery difficult.

"We haven't received any relief or noodles or clean water from the authorities but we try to help each other," said Huynh Ba Phuong, 38, a construction worker living in a flooded house with his wife and two teenage children.

Authorities said the 92 victims, whose deaths were announced by the national flood and storm control committee in Hanoi, died mostly in landslides or by drowning in floodwaters. Another 19 people were missing.

Around 200,000 people have fled their homes, Vietnamese authorities and the United Nations said.

In the historic tourist town of Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage site, water levels have begun to recede, officials said. On Wednesday, thousands of tourists were moved to higher ground.

In impoverished Cambodia, people sifted through the muddy wreckage of their smashed wooden homes to recover meagre possessions after Ketsana's rampage.

Thousands of Cambodians were affected and the storm had also flooded large swathes of Siem Reap province, home to the famed Angkor Wat temples, officials said.

"My everything, including rice, is destroyed. We are staying under a tent, filled with fear," wept Ket Suon, 43, in the village of Toek Mleang, where nine people died.

Local authorities and Red Cross officials said they were working to provide emergency assistance, while the meteorology department warned of more flash floods as the rains continued in parts of the country.

Typhoons Ketsana and Parma come as the Asia Pacific region is already under strain from a devastating earthquake in Indonesia and killer tsunamis in Samoa.

earlier related report
Vietnam steps up efforts to reach typhoon victims: officials
Vietnam on Thursday intensified efforts to get food to stranded victims of Typhoon Ketsana, one of the worst disasters to hit the country in recent years, officials said.

The storm killed at least 92 people and left 19 missing, according to the latest toll from the national flood and storm control committee in Hanoi.

Some areas remained surrounded by floodwaters but military helicopters expected to make seven flights on Thursday to deliver instant noodles to the stricken areas, a military officer, who refused to be named, told AFP.

They had made four flights on Wednesday, he said before a helicopter left with hundreds of boxes of instant noodles for Tam Ky town in Quang Nam province, near the heart of the area where Ketsana made landfall with vicious winds and pounding rain on Tuesday.

"More soldiers were mobilised on Thursday to come to the aid of the stricken," said an official from the flood and storm committee.

State media said a total of three helicopters were assigned to the relief mission.

Residents have complained that government help has been slow to reach them, and officials said the scale of the disaster made aid delivery difficult.

"We haven't received any relief or noodles or clean water from the authorities but we try to help each other. We share food with our neighbours," said Huynh Ba Phuong, 38, a construction worker still living late Wednesday in a flooded house with his wife and two teenage children.

He said they sleep on a bed resting atop a table and chairs in the water-logged house.

More than 400,000 people left their homes before, during and after the typhoon, Government Office Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said Thursday, VNExpress news website reported.

But some who decided to stay told AFP in Quang Nam that they are still living in their water-logged houses and fending for themselves.

"I think that about four out of 10 households have people that have to spend the night on the roofs of their houses," Vo Thi Muoi, 73, a farmer who had just taken a boat out in search of food, said late Wednesday.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday visited flood-hit central provinces, where local officials asked the government for 24,100 tonnes (26,510 tons) of rice and about 40 million dollars to confront the disaster.

"Our aid work is very difficult, even with a greater mobilisation from the soldiers and the police, because the scale of the flooding is too vast and we lack equipment," said Phan Nhu Nghia, president of the Vietnamese Red Cross in the central regional hub of Danang.

A government meeting Thursday was told the typhoon damaged hundreds of thousands of homes and damaged or flooded tens of thousands of hectares (acres) of farmland, VNExpress said.

Joint teams of government, United Nations and non-governmental groups were preparing to head out to six affected provinces on Thursday to assess what assistance is needed, the UN said.

Most of the deaths occurred in the fishing province of Quang Ngai, where 27 died, and in Kon Tum which recorded 21 deaths, said the flood and storm control official.

Kon Tum is a mountainous province with a large population of poor ethnic minority tribes.

Although the storm has been downgraded in intensity, Kon Tum and other Central Highland provinces were warned of serious flooding, flash floods and landslides from rising river levels, the state Vietnam News reported.

In the tourist town of Hoi An, part of Quang Nam province, water levels have begun going down, said Le Van Giang, the town's People's Committee president.

Only two roads remained flooded "but the typhoon severely damaged several hotels in the city", Giang said.

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