Updated Nov. 12, 2013 6:22 p.m. ET  TACLOBAN, Philippines—For days, this busy trading town in the central Philippines was paralyzed by the impact of one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, but now people here are beginning to collect the dead.  It is a small sign that amid the chaos caused by supertyphoon Haiyan, local and national authorities are beginning to take stock of the challenges now facing them and gradually rebuild this devastated city.  Government engineers and telephone companies have established phone and Internet links in parts of Tacloban City, one of the worst-hit by the typhoon.  The U.S. Marines and Philippine air force flew in supplies of clean drinking water and food in C-130 transport planes while private relief teams hand-carried essential medicines to replenish sorely depleted supplies in the city's only functioning hospital.  The United Nations, meanwhile, appealed for $301 million to carry out a plan to revive the areas devastated by the storm within six months, particularly the hardest-hit islands of Samar and Leyte in the central Philippines.  The challenges, though, are substantial. Haiyan was the strongest typhoon to hit the country in two decades, with wind forces three times as powerful as Hurricane Katrina, creating basic logistical problems that continue to loom large over the region. Food and water are available only through relief organizations, and blocked roads and collapsed bridges mean authorities are only now beginning to piece together what happened in farther-flung parts of the central Philippines.  It is still unclear just how many people died. Officials have confirmed nearly 1,800 deaths, but the storm may have claimed more. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III told CNN on Tuesday that the toll was closer to 2,000 or 2,500 lives than a 10,000 estimate provided by local authorities.  Survivors flown out from Tacloban on military transport aircraft described how they only barely managed to survive. Winnie Villamarga, 32 years old, said she and her family survived by lashing themselves together when the storm surge swept through their home.  "It was terrible, the worst I've ever seen and we get a lot of storms here," she said, holding one of her twin nephews. "We had prepared food but it ran out yesterday. We were getting very worried about what would happen next."  Questions, too, are arising here as to why the city lost so many lives.  "We've seen many typhoons before, but we weren't prepared for the storm surge this time," said Elmer Fuentes, 47. Many residents said the waves, coming from two directions to slam the peninsula on which Tacloban sits, were unexpectedly high. Out of 40 bodies autopsied so far, 90% had died from drowning, said John Ilo, a police medical and legal officer.  The city's residents and local authorities, though, are now taking on the grim but necessary task of clearing the dead.  On a grassy slope next to City Hall, officials Tuesday performed autopsies and zipped corpses into black body bags to prepare for a mass burial. Senior superintendent police officer Emmanuel Aranas said about 140 bodies had been retrieved, some of them plucked from the ocean. Many bodies still lay untouched among the debris on the city's streets, though, an indication of just how far the relief effort has to go. Thousands more body bags are on the way, Mr. Aranas said.  The government said that nearly seven million people in 41 provinces were affected by Haiyan. Official damage estimates for agriculture alone total $87 million, with the bulk representing rice and corn. Around 175,400 acres of farmland were affected.  On Tuesday, the government opened an airstrip in Guiuan, a coastal town on the island of Samar that was first to feel the fury of Haiyan when it made landfall at dawn Friday.  Manuel Roxas, secretary for the interior and local governments, said the Guiuan airport will serve as a hub for distribution of relief and rescue efforts in Samar. Some of the C-130 military cargo planes, which are being used to deliver relief supplies and transport survivors, will be diverted to Guiuan.  More goods are arriving in Leyte, too, as the government opens land routes.  Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said that the destruction wrought by the disaster could shave off as much as a full percentage point from economic growth next year, when the government targets expansion of at least 6.5%. He said he is hopeful that the adverse effect on growth will be cushioned, if not offset, by the reconstruction spending.  "From a fiscal standpoint, we do have fiscal space to spend for reconstruction. The estimates are preliminary, but we need to invest significantly on infrastructure," Mr. Purisima said.  Additional soldiers and police deployed in Tacloban appeared to be restoring some order, minimizing the looting that had followed the storm, although evacuation centers were crowded and lacked clean drinking water.  But even as Tacloban prepared to bury hundreds in a mass grave on Wednesday, stories of hope emerged.  When Typhoon Haiyan—known locally as Yolanda—slammed into Tacloban, city officials said they feared all of the workers at a city office near the waterline had been killed.  Marilou Nacilla, a 56-year-old social worker, was among those feared lost.  On Tuesday, though, Ms. Nacilla was compiling lists of people needing help at a temporary office opposite Tacloban City Hall, helping the relief effort to gain traction despite logistical problems and poor weather.  "My four children thought I was dead. They had no idea that I worked through the storm and moved to the new location," Ms. Nacilla said. "But on Saturday, I had a moment of intuition and felt I should let my family know everything was OK.  "So I found a man who was going to my neighborhood to let them know where I was, and I found out that they thought I was dead," she said. "It was such a shock."  Now she is continuing to report to work for as long as she can. while other government officials also try to pick up the slack after the storm claimed the lives of many of their colleagues.  A devout Catholic, Ms. Nacilla said that "I made a promise to serve the Lord if my family and I were spared. And this is my way of fulfilling it."  Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com, Cris Larano at cris.larano@wsj.com and Te-Ping Chen at te-ping.chen@wsj.com
The Philippines wrestled with damage wrought by supertyphoon Haiyan as the U.N. appealed for $301 million to address the daunting task of getting devastated areas back on their feet in six months.