The Manila government has declared a national emergency and desperation was mounting in the central Philippines where countless bodies were scattered across wastelands, four days after the unprecedented havoc wreaked by Super Typhoon Haiyan.
US marines have joined the frantic effort to find and help famished survivors, deploying to a zone where entire towns were flattened and communities were bereft of food, water and medicine.
The United Nations warned Monday the death toll was quickly mounting.
"We are certainly expecting the worst. As we get more and more access we find the tragedy of more and more people killed in this typhoon," a top UN humanitarian official, John Ging, said.