Floods and landslides triggered by tropical depression Parma killed at least 300 people in northern Philippines over the past week, officials said Sunday.

More bodies were discovered as the weather cleared and floodwaters receded Sunday.

In the worst hit mountainous Cordillera region, more than 40 landslides were recorded, killing 227 people, Director of the Office of Civil Defense-Cordillera Administrative Region Olive Luces said.

Floods also caused water in the Sam Roque dam to rise to critical levels. The release of excess water from the dam, along with the massive rainfall, submerged parts of the nearby provinces in one-meter deep floodwaters. Officials said it would take days before the water to dry up.

Disaster relief workers are also rebuilding damaged roads linked to the mountainous city of Baguio, famed as the country's summer capital. Fifty people were killed there over the week-long devastation of Parma. Luces said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who flew to Baguio Sunday, convened a crisis meeting and ordered the preparation to relocate shanty families at high risk.

Parma, initially a typhoon, slammed into the Philippine northeastern coast on Oct. 3. It hovered over the northern Luzon region and re-entered its northwestern coast as a tropical depression on Oct. 8. Parma finally existed the Philippine archipelago on this Saturday.

The National Disasters Coordinating Council said 49,840 families or 2,267,527 persons were affected by Parma. About 23,000houses were damaged and at least 102,180 persons have been evacuated to 281 temporary shelters.

The disaster relief agency's spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres said the search and rescue efforts, which is being implemented parallel to relief missions, in the affected areas may take two more weeks.

Torres said the death toll is likely to rise as officials are still verifying death reports.

Officials said the United Nations is also deploying its own team to assess the damage.

Days before, the UN has flashed an alarm to the international community for 74 million U.S. dollars in humanitarian assistance for the victims of typhoon Kestana, which killed 337 people as it swept across the national capital and neighboring provinces on Sept. 26.

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