Death Toll From Typhoon Rises to 250 in Philippines : Asia: Storm leaves dozens missing, thousands homeless. Officials warn of food shortages.

The death toll from Typhoon Angela soared from 79 to more than 250 Saturday, with more than half of those killed in a province struck by high waves at the height of the storm, officials said.

Dozens more people were reported missing in the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines in a decade. Thousands have been left homeless, their houses flooded or flattened by Angela’s 125-m.p.h. winds.

Government officials warned of impending food shortages unless relief supplies are sent to the hardest-hit regions across the northern part of the country. Warehouses full of rice were destroyed, and much of the crop was ruined still in the fields.

About 100 bodies were recovered in the town of Calauag in Quezon, where five communities were hit by big waves at the worst of the typhoon Friday, the government’s social welfare agency said.

“Most of the bodies have been found floating along the shores,” a local radio station reporter said. The town has run out of coffins, and bodies are being wrapped in plastic bags and piled in a cemetery, the reporter said.

Many of the dead there are children, and at least 25 people are still missing from the town, about 100 miles southeast of Manila, the welfare agency said.

Quezon Gov. Robert Racelis said 43 more people were killed in other towns in the province, including 30 killed in the town of Sampaloc when a dam burst and floodwaters overran it.

“The death toll could still rise. There are 16 missing and are presumed dead,” Racelis said. “Many houses have been swept away.”

At least 68 people died in Bicol, on the southeastern end of the main island of Luzon, where Angela first stormed ashore Thursday. Most of the deaths there were from flash floods, officials said.

Angela was about 312 miles west of Manila on Saturday in the South China Sea and was expected to hit central Vietnam on Monday.

Angela knocked out power to a third of the country. Utility crews were on the streets in Manila and elsewhere Saturday. By noon, power was restored to about half of the capital.

Road crews were clearing streets choked with snapped power poles, toppled billboards and other debris.

One man in Manila’s Tondo district told a radio station that he was collecting debris to build a shanty for his family, since he had no money to buy new materials.

Thousands of houses along the coast, most of them belonging to poor families, were flooded or flattened by the storm, leaving nearly 300,000 people homeless. Many houses were still underwater Saturday.

Initial estimates of property damage were about $21 million. Crop damage was estimated at $25 million.

International airline flights resumed Friday evening. Philippine Airlines announced Saturday that all domestic flights had resumed.

Angela was the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since August, 1984, when Ike killed 4,353 people. Ike was the deadliest typhoon to hit the Philippines since World War II.

Officials in the Philippines were still assessing the damage from Typhoon Zack, which struck last week, killing at least 165 people. The storm blew the roofs off hundreds of homes and offices, flooded winter crops and damaged rail lines, the newspaper Laodong (Labor) said. Early damage estimates were put at about $16 million.