(NBC News: Ian Williams) - Relief aid has started to reach the hard-hit city of Tacloban after a powerful typhoon slammed into the Philippines last week, but there are many people who are still in need.
The head of the Philippine Red Cross described the situation in central Philippines as absolute bedlam.
The typhoon cut a path of destruction across the central part of the country.
Now rescue workers and relief teams are still trying to reach some of the more remote areas, some of the hardest hit areas where communications are down and where the roads remain blocked.
"Our problem is getting more relief goods in because the roads are not yet accessible. I myself have already helped. Even the day after the storm, we were retrieving bodies, and at the same time clearing roads, and the problem is 90-percent to 95-percent of people in city hall are also casualties," said Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez.
Tacloban was the biggest city in that central area, and aid is starting to trickle in there, but they're in desperate need of more clean drinking water, of shelter, of food, and of medical supplies.
Large swathes of that city were destroyed, especially along the coast.
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People have been going to the airport, walking to the airport, which is quite a way out of town to try to get on an evacuation flight, of which there are very few.
One small bit of uplifting news came when one woman, waiting at the airport, who had survived the typhoon, did give birth to a baby.
The rescue efforts really are just beginning, though, and there is an enormous amount to do.
