More than 100 tonnes of Irish aid has arrived in the Philippines to help the relief efforts after one of the most devastating storms ever recorded.

More than 2,500 thousand people have died and over 11 million have been affected by Typhoon Haiyan which struck the island nation last Friday.

Irish Aid has so far dispatched over 500-thousand euro worth of shelter supplies - with the UN calling for over €300 million in aid to help the victims.

Oxfam Ireland CEO Jim Clarken says the Government must be prepared to contribute more as the full scale of the disaster becomes clearer:

The United Nations has launched a global appeal for aid, estimating that $301 million will be needed. In the meantime, survivors are struggling to cope without shelter, clean water or food.

With communications down many Filipinos living in neighbouring provinces simply do not know if their loved ones are still alive.

And families and friends of the missing based overseas have taken to social media in an effort to locate their loved ones.

The scale of the disaster and challenges of delivering the assistance mean few in areas strewn with debris and corpses have received much help yet.

Almost every building in the storm zone has been damaged and people are sleeping rough for safety - but in some areas, like Tacloban, dead bodies still line the streets.

There are also fears that another storm is due to hit, bring much rain.

Death toll discrepancies

The official number of dead in the disaster rose to 1,774 on Tuesday, though authorities have said they expect that to rise markedly.

The UN warned that 10,000 people were feared dead in just one city, Tacloban, in Leyte.

But the President said the toll could actually be closer to 2,000 or 2,500.

"10,000, I think, is too much. There was emotional drama involved with that particular estimate," Mr Aquino told CNN.