NNA - The Philippine government says it is facing its biggest ever logistical challenge after Typhoon Haiyan, which affected as many as 11 million people, reported BBC Thursday.


Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said the government had been overwhelmed by the impact of Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms on record.


The official death toll stands at more than 2,300, but local officials and aid workers say it could rise much higher.


Almendras said the government had responded to the disaster "quite well".


Some residents have expressed anger at the slow speed of the government relief effort.


But the BBC's Jonathan Head in Tacloban, a devastated city of 220,000 on Leyte island, says Wednesday brought the first signs of an organised response.


US military planes have been arriving at Tacloban's ruined airport, delivering World Food Programme supplies, which can be carried by helicopter to outlying regions, and a French-Belgian field hospital has been set up.


Many people have left Tacloban, says our correspondent, but among those left behind there is a growing sense of panic and fear, not just of food running out but of law and order breaking down.


On Tuesday, eight people died when a wall collapsed as thousands of desperate survivors mobbed a food warehouse.


And on Wednesday there were reports of shots being fired in the street and of a teenaged boy being stabbed in the stomach.


With warehouses empty, the main concern for people still in Tacloban was food and water. Some survivors resorted to digging up water pipes for supplies.


On a visit to the city, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said aid was coming in but "the priority has got to be, let's get the food in, let's get the water in".


Health officials warn the worst-affected areas are entering a peak danger period for the spread of infectious diseases.


Almendras told the BBC he believed the administration was "doing quite well" in handling the crisis, especially as it came weeks after a major earthquake in the same region.


"We have never done anything like this before," he said.


Police spokesman Reuben Sindac denied there was a breakdown in law and order in Tacloban, telling the BBC there was a lot of rumour and misinformation spreading among people who were "in a state of shock".


He said security forces were now in control of key installations, preventing looting and ensuring the safety of aid deliveries.



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