Rescuers struggle to aid Philippines storm victims NEW: At least 274 people are dead in the Philippines from Typhoon Bopha NEW: More than half of 2,776 homes hit by the storm are destroyed, officials say Bopha is moving offshore but is still raking northwestern Philippines with heavy rain (CNN) -- Rescue crews in the Philippines worked Wednesday to overcome washed-out roads, downed power lines and poor communications as they tried to reach what's left of remote villages to search for hundreds of people missing after a powerful typhoon. Tens of thousands of people were left homeless after Typhoon Bopha raked the large southern island of Mindanao with heavy rains and sustained winds of up to 175 kph (110 mph). The storm wiped out the mountain village of Baculin and killed at least half of the residents of nearby Kinablangan, the official Philippines News Agency reported Wednesday. Bopha also severely damaged almost all of the homes in the villages of Boston, Cateel and Baganga, Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon told PNA. "I felt like there was an earthquake because the winds and rain were so strong," said Herbert Yepis, a staff member of the humanitarian group World Vision working in Mindanao. Watch: iReporter captures Typhoon aftermath in southern Philippines Bopha, known in the Philippines as Pablo, continued to work its way through the island nation on Wednesday, making its fourth landfall in the northwestern province of Palawan, PNA reported. The storm had begun to move offshore by Wednesday afternoon, but continued to wash Palawan with heavy rain. It wasn't expected to fully clear the Philippines until Thursday. At least 274 people have been confirmed dead, including 133 in the Davao region where the storm first made landfall on Tuesday. The death toll is certain to rise, officials said. At least 319 people were missing in the town of New Bataan alone, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported, citing Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas. "Entire families may have been washed away," ABS-CBN quoted him as saying. At least 170,000 people were living in shelters, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the federal emergency management agency. Bopha struck first and hardest on Mindanao, which is rarely in the direct path of tropical cyclones. Bopha's heavy rains set off sudden, violent floods in several parts of the hilly and remote region, washing away houses and dozens of people. The storm damaged 2,776 homes in northern Mindanao, wiping out nearly half of them, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Bopha even thwarted some of the authorities' efforts to relocate people in vulnerable areas to safer places. "In one case in Davao Oriental, the evacuation centers -- public buildings and schools -- were also victims of flash flooding," said Camilo Gudmalin, assistant secretary at the Department of Social Welfare and Development. And as a result, some people who were in an evacuation center died. The storm damage and remote location of many of the affected villages made it hard for rescue workers to reach some victims, Gudamalin said. "We have difficulty communicating with our teams because power lines and communication signals are down," Gudmalin said. The storm also damaged at least five bridges and nine major roads, the government said. Fishing boats were delivering relief supplies to some areas. The storm also disrupted ferry services, and about 5,000 travelers were left stranded at ports across the country Wednesday. The national disaster agency warned sea travel remained dangerous in places because of high swells. The storm brought back memories of Severe Tropical Storm Washi, known in the Philippines as Sendong, whose heavy rains swept away entire villages in the same region in December 2011. More than 1,200 people died in that storm. Unlike that storm, which caught many people off guard, local authorities did a better job of relocating people out of vulnerable areas and preparing evacuation centers for Bopha, the Philippine Red Cross said. CNN's Sarita Harilela and Michael Pearson contributed to this report.