Aid arrives for Typhoon-struck Philippines amid difficulties

(Vatican Radio) The United Nations has launched a $301 million dollar appeal to help
those desperately in need of help in the Philippines. The UN estimates 11 million people have been affected by Typhoon Haiyan which hit the country on Friday.
Some 1,800 people are now known to have died in the category five storm. For the survivors, aid is arriving, but coordinators report huge difficulties in reaching many regions still cut off.
Alastair Wanklyn has details. Listen:

At Tacloban airport, a Philippines transport plane is unloading pallets of aid.
The government says every day it's sending 50,000 family-sized packs of food to the region.

But many survivors...

SOT MAN SHOUTING

...say they've still got no food.

At one local hospital, staff say there's no power, and above all...

Insert "...we need really water."

Some aid coordinators say the problem is that while food and bottled water piles up at the airport on the coast it's impossible to move it inland because roads are blocked.

A United States aircraft carrier is expected to arrive in the region around Thursday, bringing potentially dozens of helicopters that could be used to ferry aid from the airport to places where it is needed.

The city of Guiuan is one such district. It was once home to 40,000 people and was reportedly wiped out. And it is among the places said still to be untouched by aid.

For Vatican Radio, Alastair Wanklyn reporting