Typhoon Haiyan: Race To Get Aid To Survivors

As the international community races to get aid into the Typhoon Haiyan disaster zone, survivors are struggling to cope without shelter, clean water or food.

The Philippines is grappling with the aftermath of Friday's typhoon, with shattered communications and transport links hampering relief efforts.

It is feared that thousands of people have died, making it one of the deadliest storms in recorded history.

With communications down many Filipinos living in neighbouring provinces simply do not know if their loved ones are still alive.

And families and friends of the missing based overseas have taken to social media in an effort to locate their loved ones.

The United Nations has launched a global appeal for aid, estimating that $301m (£190m) will be needed.

A man places a cross beside a body covered in a blanket in Leyte

The UK's first flight, delivering more than 8,800 shelter kits, has now landed in the country.

The delivery came as the Queen has also made a personal donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal which was launched on Tuesday.

In a message to Filipino President Benigno Aquino, the monarch said: "Prince Philip joins me in offering our heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families at this difficult time."

The Queen's message came after the Government announced it would match public donations to leading UK charities.

Under a new agreement with the DEC - made up of 14 charities - the first £5m donated will be matched pound for pound.

The Government had already committed £10m in aid, so the additional £5m commitment will increase the UK's support to £15m in total.

Britain is also deploying a Royal Navy warship with equipment to make drinking water from seawater and a military transport aircraft.

The US is sending an aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington.

The scale of the disaster and challenges of delivering the assistance mean few in areas strewn with debris and corpses have received much help yet.

Sky's Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who is in Cebu City, has said the "grim situation" there has not improved.

He said there has been a huge amount of destruction and that almost every building in the storm zone has been damaged.

"People in Cebu are concerned they have been forgotten in favour of other areas hit by the typhoon," Ramsay said. "We're not seeing the massive aid that you would expect and hope to see by this stage.

"The relief situation isn't really under way. There is a general feeling that the authorities have not taken control of this and it has all been chaotic."

He said people have been begging along the roadside in the early hours of the morning.

"People are sleeping rough or anywhere they can," he said.

There are also fears that another storm is due to hit, bring much rain.

The devastation near the airport in Tacloban on Leyte island

To the east of Cebu is the island of Leyte, where Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone said up to 20 people had been killed by falling bags of rice in the scramble to get to aid supplies from a warehouse.

Stone travelled to the island with people who did not know if their family members were alive or dead.

"There's no mobile phone network here, no way of communicating," he said.

The official number of dead in the disaster rose to 1,774 on Tuesday, though authorities have said they expect that to rise markedly.

The UN warned that 10,000 people were feared dead in just one city, Tacloban, in Leyte.

But the President said the toll could actually be closer to 2,000 or 2,500.

"Ten thousand, I think, is too much. There was emotional drama involved with that particular estimate," Mr Aquino told CNN.

Two Americans are among the dead, the US State Department has confirmed.

:: To make a donation to the DEC Philippines Crisis Appeal visit www.dec.org.uk, call the 24-hour hotline on 0370 60 60 900, donate over the counter at any high street bank or post office or send a cheque.

You can also donate £5 by texting the word SUPPORT to 70000.

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