At least one man was killed and 45 fishermen were missing after a powerful typhoon battered the northern Philippines, toppling power lines and dumping heavy rain across mountains, cities and the food-growing plain.

Helicopters delivered food to survivors and picked up casualties today as flash floods began to recede in the northern Philippines, revealing the magnitude of a disaster triggered by back-to-back storms that killed more than 650 people and left nearly 400 missing.