Typhoon Haiyan: death toll could rise as rescue teams reach remote areas The "sheer size of the emergency" in the wake of the typhoon was testing relief efforts, he told NBC's "Today" program, speaking from Manila. John Ging, director of operations at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said "many places are strewn with dead bodies" that need to be buried quickly to prevent the outbreak of a public health disaster. "We're sadly expecting the worst as we get more and more access," said Ging, speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York. President Benigno Aquino declared a state of national calamity and deployed hundreds of soldiers in Tacloban to quell looting. Tacloban's administration appeared to be in disarray as city and hospital workers focused on saving their own families and securing food. Nevertheless, relief supplies were getting into the city four days after Typhoon Haiyan turned the once-vibrant port of 220,000 into a corpse-choked wasteland. Aid trucks from the airport struggled to enter because of the stream of people and vehicles leaving. On motorbikes, trucks or by foot, people clogged the road to the airport, holding scarves to their faces to blot out the stench of bodies. Hundreds have left on cargo planes to the capital Manila or the second-biggest city of Cebu, with many more sleeping rough overnight at the wrecked terminal building. Reuters journalists travelled into the city on a government aid truck which was guarded by soldiers with assault rifles. "It's risky," said Jewel Ray Marcia, an army lieutenant. People are angry. They are going out of their minds. Rescuers have yet to reach remote parts of the coast, such as Guiuan, a town in eastern Samar province with a population of 40,000 that was largely destroyed. The typhoon also levelled Basey, a seaside town in Samar province about 10 km (6 miles) across a bay from Tacloban in Leyte province. About 2,000 people were missing in Basey, said the governor of Samar province.