The Telegragh: by Chris Irvine, Hannah Strange —

Although evacuations did take place many people stayed in their homes as they perhaps did not understand the threat posed by Haiyan, especially the storm surge. Preparedness is key and better education as to the nature of a major typhoon’s likely impact is important. Many emergency shelters succumbed to the storm as well and so there may be lessons to be learned from Bangladesh where the Cyclone Preparedness Programme has been successful in reducing the loss of life – warnings of a cyclone approaching are given by a network of volunteers and there are concrete cyclone shelters designed to withstand storm surges where people can ride out the storm.

David Eimer writes from Manila the UN has announced that the airport atGuiuan, where Haiyan first made landfall on Friday, has opened for humanitarian flights.

Guiuan, a coastal port of 47,000 people in eastern Samar Province, has been completely cut off from the outside world since the typhoon struck.

The town has been the scene of widespread looting and disorder with gun shots fired as starving survivors raid shops and warehouses for food and water.

Benigno Aquino, the President of the Philippines, has told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the widely-touted estimated death toll of 10,000 is “too much” and that the government believes it is likely closer to 2,000 or2,500. Officials have so far counted 1,774bodies but they fear the number could be as high as 10,000.

“We’re hoping to be able to contact something like 29 municipalities left wherein we still have to establish their numbers, especially for the missing, but so far 2,000, about 2,500, is the number we are working on as far as deaths are concerned,” he said.

Editor’s Note: More news will be posted as soon as the Humanity First teams reach the hard hit areas, insha’Allah

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