Survivors root through the splintered wreckage of their homes searching for loved ones who may be buried beneath. Others are scrambling to find food and water in areas littered with corpses.

Three days after Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in recorded history, scythed across the central Philippines, people here are struggling to grasp the enormity of what they have lost and the challenges they still face, CNN's Anna Coren reports.

The storm, known as Yolanda in the Philippines, has left devastation on a monumental scale in its wake.

Thousands of houses have been obliterated. Many areas are still cut off from transport, communications and power. Some officials say that as many as 10,000 people may have been killed.

"There are too many people dead," said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross. "We have bodies in the water, bodies on the bridges, bodies on the side of the road."

And amid the carnage, hundreds of thousands of survivors are trying to cope with a lack of water, food, shelter and medicine. Aid workers and government officials are battling to get emergency supplies to hard hit areas, which have been cut off by fallen trees and power lines.

The United Nations is working to bring in aid, says Spokeswoman Orla Fagan.

Fagan describes the situation to "New Day's" Kate Bolduan saying, “It’s devastating. The whole place is devastated. The government figures now are saying it’s 9.8 million people affected by this typhoon.  Getting to them in the first instance is top of our priority now.”

The humanitarian says she expects the recovery effort will take six months initially but "it’s going to be really really big. Everybody is gearing up, it will be a massive operation to get to people, to get them food, and to deal with the trauma as well."

See more at CNN.com.