BASEY, the Philippines — When Typhoon Haiyan hit this coastal town, residents ran for Saint Michael the Archangel Church. Now, 10 days later, more than 100 of them remain.

“I was in my house, but it was destroyed,” said Belen Cabonce, 87. “We ran for higher ground, and this was it. Some people stayed in houses trying to hold on, but most of them came here.” Ms. Cabonce has lived here ever since, sleeping on a damp pew, wondering when the next shipment of relief goods will arrive.

She has not heard from her two children in Tacloban, the city that lost more than 800 people in the storm, since the typhoon hit on Nov. 8. “Please give me aid,” she said. “I’m alone.”

As the Philippines begins to clean up after the worst typhoon in memory, it is faced with a huge problem of feeding and housing its displaced population. The government says that about four million people have been displaced, with some 350,000 living in about 1,500 evacuation centers.