As many as 10,000 people are believed to have died in one Philippine city alone after one of the worst storms ever recorded unleashed ferocious winds and giant waves that washed away homes and schools.
Corpses hung from tree branches and were scattered along pavements and among flattened buildings, while looters raided grocery stores and petrol stations in search of food, fuel and water.
Officials projected the death toll could climb even higher when emergency crews reach areas cut off by flooding and landslides.
Even in the disaster-prone Philippines, which regularly contends with earthquakes, volcanoes and tropical cyclones, Typhoon Haiyan appears to be the deadliest natural disaster on record.
Haiyan hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippine archipelago on Friday and quickly barrelled across its central islands before exiting into the South China Sea, packing winds of 147mph that gusted to 170mph, and a storm surge that caused sea waters to rise 20ft.
It was not until yesterday that the scale of the devastation became clear, with officials on hardest-hit Leyte Island saying that there may be 10,000 dead in the provincial capital of Tacloban alone.
Reports also trickled in from elsewhere on the island, and from neighbouring islands, indicating hundreds, if not thousands more deaths, though it will be days before the full extent of the storm’s impact can be assessed.
Haiyan raced across the eastern and central Philippines, inflicting serious damage to at least six of the archipelago’s more than 7,000 islands, with Leyte, neighbouring Samar Island, and the northern part of Cebu appearing to take the hardest hits.
It weakened as it crossed the South China Sea before approaching northern Vietnam. On Leyte, regional police chief Elmer Soria said the provincial governor had told him there were about 10,000 deaths there, primarily from drowning and collapsed buildings.
Most of the deaths were in Tacloban, a city of about 200,000 that is the biggest on Leyte Island.
A massive relief operation was under way, but the Philippine National Red Cross said its efforts were being hampered by looters, including some who attacked trucks of food and other relief supplies the agency was shipping from the southern port city of Davao to Tacloban.
With other rampant looting being reported, President Benigno Aquino III said he was considering declaring a state of emergency or martial law.
The massive casualties occurred even though the government evacuated 800,000 people. About 4million people were affected by the storm.