Tacloban , Philippines ( CNN ) -- The last time I 'd seen Tacloban , it was a mangled wreck . Much of the city had been smashed . What was left was a landscape of rubble , rain and mud , stripped and torn-down trees , smashed vehicles and isolated concrete shells that had been homes . Worst of all was the smell of death and decay as bodies were dragged from the ruins and left at the side of the road to be collected . The living were in a state of shocked bewilderment . It was a little more than a week after Typhoon Haiyan had pummeled this Philippines city . As I climbed onto a U.S. military flight to Manila I could see thousands of people trying desperately to get out on one of the handful of aid flights -- a stark testimony to the devastation they were leaving behind . Half a year on . Coming back , almost seven months later , I was prepared for the worst and half expecting to see a city still in shock , lacking the basics of food , water and housing . But Tacloban surprised me . The scars of Haiyan are still vivid but the city is recovering . The main commercial district is very much open for business , the roads are cleared and busy and the power companies are restoring supply . The Coke and Pepsi plants are both back up and running and hotels are open doing a brisk trade , especially with workers from the many NGOs involved in the recovery effort . But the evidence of one of the most intense storms in recorded history is everywhere -- in shattered steel structures that were once factories , as well as the many wrecked houses left by their owners to rot in the searing tropical heat . And always most haunting are the graveyards . From tiny unmarked mounds indicating the burial of a child , to bigger plots filled with extended families . On one wooden board , I counted 22 names from the same family . Moving forward . But even amid these scenes of such desperate sadness , there is an acceptance of what has happened and a willingness to move forward . We arrived at sundown at a mass grave in the grounds of San Joaquin church in Palo , which is just outside Tacloban . An empty piece of ground just meters from the graves had been taken over by children playing , the sound of laughter ringing across the night . It is the resilience of the people here that stands out . Tacloban was a moderately wealthy , mid-sized city before the storm -- though that does n't mean they 're insulated from nature . On average 20 powerful storms hit the region ever year . Loss and destruction are part of the fabric of this region . But talk to the local people here now and it becomes clear that the rebuilding of Tacloban has reached a critical stage . The initial response to Haiyan as the international aid effort ramped up was a success -- no outbreak of disease , no widespread breakdown in law and order and enough supplies of emergency food and clean water . However , the rebuilding stage needs to be faster . After six months , less than 150 permanent new houses had been built . The master-plan calls for 200,000 . While bureaucracy has been a major factor in the delays , the most important has been finding suitable land that fits in with the government 's `` Building Back Better '' plan . New accommodation must be able to withstand Haiyan-like wind speeds , and be built on ground not vulnerable to storm surges and landslides . I asked Toto Andrada what he thought . I 'd met Toto at the hotel the CNN team had taken refuge in during Haiyan . Producer Tim Schwarz , `` storm-chaser '' Josh Morgerman and I had helped rescue Toto , his wife and their disabled daughter who had been trapped in their ground floor room by the rising storm surge . Toto was angry at the pace of the rebuilding but at the same time he was proud of what had been achieved in the recovery . `` The national government should help the city more , '' he said . `` The money is here -- it 's just taking so long for the government to release it . Why ? '' His family is divided about whether they should stay . His daughter Kaykay , who has cerebal palsy , probably put it best though . `` I do n't mind where we are , '' she said . `` As long as we are together . '' IN PICTURES : Tacloban after Typhoon Haiyan and six months later .
Philippines hit the Typhoon Haiyan in almost seven months , devastating towns such as Tacloban . Coke 's Toto Andrada returns to the city almost seven months on . Landscape littered with wrecked cars , torn-down trees slowly replaced by signs of rebuilding .