Authorities in the Philippine have appealed for international aid as the death toll from once-in-a-lifetime floods soared to 140. Two days after the horror storm sent torrents of water through the nation's capital Manila and surrounding provinces, the government conceded it was unable to deal with the disaster on its own and needed urgent help. In a nationally televised briefing, Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro appealed for internaional humanitarian assistance. Teodoro announced the death toll had climbed sharply to 140, with 32 others still missing and 453,000 forced out of their flooded or destroyed homes. However it was feared that the death toll would jump further, as local authorities reported dozens of other deaths that appeared not to have been included in the government's figures. President Gloria Arroyo described the deluge, which was the worst to hit Manila in more than four decades and left 80 percent of the city under water, as a once-in-a-lifetime storm. The head of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Anthony Golez, said the government was concentrating on massive relief operations but the system was overwhelmed. After ripping across the Philippines, tropical storm Ketsana was upgraded to a full typhoon and was bearing down on central Vietnam, where officials expected it to make landfall late tomorrow.