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Destroyed buildings are seen on the Philippines' Victory Island on Monday, November 11. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in recorded history, wrecked the country on a monumental scale. Click through the gallery to see other aerial shots of the disaster.

Guiuan, Philippines, on November 11

Victory Island on November 11

Guiuan on November 11

Tacloban, Philippines, on November 11

Guiuan on November 11

Guiuan on November 11

Guiuan on November 11

Capiz, Philippines, on November 11

Guiuan on November 11

Tacloban on Sunday, November 10

Eastern Samar province on November 11

Iloilo, Philippines, on Saturday, November 9

Guiuan on November 11

Guiuan on November 11

Tacloban on November 9

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Tacloban, Philippines (CNN) -- Surrounded by rubble, children swarm around a public well in this storm-ravaged city, where bodies are still lying in the streets days after a deadly typhoon struck.

The children douse themselves with water and fill plastic cups and jugs.

"Even though we're not sure that it is clean and safe," Roselda Sumapit said, "we still drink it, because we need to survive."

The scene on a street in the city of Tacloban is one of many CNN reporters and others have witnessed as residents deal with the death and destruction that Typhoon Haiyan left behind when the massive storm tore through the Philippines:

Damaged roads, airports slow storm relief

Storm survivors desperate for aid

Storm survivors wait hours for fuel

READ: Typhoon Haiyan leaves 1,774 dead, aid efforts mobilize

What now?

Amid the swirling, tugging waters, Jenelyn Manocsoc placed her 11-month-old son, Anthony, on her head and hung on to the roof rafters to avoid being swept away.

"All I hear, many cries, many people crying," she said in broken English. "Many people saying, 'help, help.'"

Her husband and many other relatives died. She doesn't know where she will go next, but at least she and her son are alive.

"It's very traumatic, very hard," she said.

Awaiting relief

The residents of Guiuan have waited for days for relief. The town of 50,000, the first to be hit by the typhoon, is a scene of utter devastation.

"Everything, everything's gone," one resident told CNN's Anna Coren, who traveled to the town on a Philippines Air Force C-130 relief flight. "So we need help."

Swimming for their lives

Philippine congressman Martin Romualdez was holed up in his house, as Haiyan's winds screamed around it, hurling debris at speeds rivaling those of race cars.

"It was mad, and it was so loud, and when you look outside you couldn't see a thing," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

The wind ripped off the roof of the house. He rushed his kids into the shelter of a car standing nearby to protect them from flying objects.

Then the storm surge poured in.

"After a few minutes, I see this water gushing in, gushing in really fast, not thinking that the water was going to be rising," Romualdez said.

Typhoon death toll continues to rise

Family goes through ceiling to flee storm

Survivors tell stories of terrible loss

The car began to fill. His children are good swimmers, he said. So, he got out of the car with them, and they, and Romualdez' staff, swam for their lives as the waves pushed cars and houses along with them.

CNN OPEN STORY: Typhoon Haiyan's impact

'We don't have anything to eat'

As they searched for loved ones lost in the storm, desperate survivors asked for help.

"Our house got demolished," one woman told CNN affiliate ABS-CBN. "My father died after being hit by falling wooden debris. We are calling for your help. If possible, please bring us food. We don't have anything to eat."

A man begged for forgiveness because he couldn't save his daughter from the typhoon's wrath.

"We all got separated from each other when the strong waves hit," he told ABS-CBN. "We got separated. I couldn't even hold on to my child."

Another man said he was still trying to find six family members.

"My child has been buried in that island," he said.

READ: Typhoon creates health crisis in the Philippines

'I'm going to die'

Shirley Lim still remembers the sounds she heard as the storm struck.

The wind was so strong, she said, it sounded like someone was crying.

"It's like the movie 'Twister,'" she said.

Speaking to CNN Monday from the city of Coron, Lim said one thought ran through her mind during the storm: "I'm going to die."

But she survived.

Many homes in Coron were severely damaged by the typhoon, she said, as the howling winds ripped roofs off houses made of light material like bamboo.

INTERACTIVE: 'The one building that survived the storm'

Prison inmates threaten breakout

A man stands on a rooftop, threatening to jump.

He is one of 672 inmates at a Tacloban prison, where food and water supplies ran out on Monday.

Now, the prison's warden says the inmates have given him a warning, threatening a mass breakout in one or two days if they don't get food and water.

From the prison's rooftop, the inmate says he is devastated -- but he doesn't mention food or drink. He says he doesn't know what happened to his family during the storm.

READ: Typhoon Haiyan crushed town 'like giant hand from the sky'

Fear spreads

Philippine Red Cross Chief on relief effort

Tacloban mayor: Searching bodies by smell

Richard Young wears a green whistle on a plastic strap around his neck.

He has been carrying it since Saturday night when small groups started forming to defend his neighborhood. They stayed up all night, he says, prepared to whistle if they saw any looting.

But whistles aren't the only thing they have, he says. Many also are carrying weapons.

"As long as they don't harm my kids, my family, that's OK," he says. "But once we are threatened, we will shoot. All of us, we are ready."

Already, the Filipino businessman says he's been shocked at the looting he's seen in the city -- not just food, he says, but large appliances like refrigerators and washing machines. Thieves, he says, have already ransacked his shop and others nearby.

"We are very afraid. ... In Tacloban we are almost 98% Catholics, and I can't believe they did this," he says. "Nobody would think it's going to be lawlessness."

READ: Water, wind and fire create catastrophe

'We were just floating'

Tacloban City Councilor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez and her husband, Mayor Alfred Romualdez were at their home facing the Pacific Ocean when the storm surge came, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported Tuesday.

Suddenly, water burst into the home and rose so quickly, the people inside had to punch holes in the ceiling and climb to the second floor to avoid being swept away, Gonzales-Romualdez told the network.

She found herself worried she would be swept out to sea.

"We were just floating, I was holding on to my kids," she said.

Hundreds volunteer to pack aid

At the provincial welfare office in Cebu, hundreds of volunteers pack food and supplies into sturdy white bags.

An employee who gives his name as Richard tells CNN's Anna Coren that students, workers and even tourists from Germany had arrived to help.

"I'm deeply touched," he said.

READ: Children ripped from arms

Searching for family lost in the storm

Splintered wood beams cover the ground where roads once connected a neighborhood near the coastline.

Here, the storm surge plowed down homes, leaving behind mounds of rubble as far as the eye can see.

Authorities pleaded with residents in the coastal area to evacuate as the storm approached. It's unclear how many did, and how many may be missing.

Amid the chaos, one man says he is searching for his father, brothers and uncles under the rubble.

"We all tried to leave, but it was too late," he says. "I got separated when the waters started rising. I don't know what happened to them."

READ: Philippines gets more than its share of disasters

READ: How to help

CNN's David Simpson, Tim Schwarz, Brad Olsen, Chandrika Narayan and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.