TAIPEI, Taiwan (August 23, 2009)--Taiwan's premier says the country’s worst weather disaster in half a century has killed at least 650 people.

In the wake of Typhoon Morakot 160 deaths have been confirmed deaths and another 490 people are listed as missing and are presumed dead.

DNA tests will be conducted on battered bodies that authorities have not yet been able to identify.

The storm that hit two weeks ago triggered landslides and widespread flooding that trapped thousands of people in remote southern villages for days.

Television footage Sunday showed soldiers and students scrubbing homes and streets in a southern city, which was still flooded in knee-deep waters because drainage ditches were blocked by debris.

Hundreds of soldiers in camouflage also waded through floodwaters to the area where homes once stood in Shiao Lin, the village hardest hit by massive mudslides.