“There are lots of remote areas that haven’t received aid,” Mr. Carandang said. “The priority is to get food and water supplied. With communications partially functioning, with ports and roads blocked, we need to get that clear first. We need to get the roads clear before you can get the aid to them.”

President Aquino suggested that the death toll may not turn out to be as high as initially feared. In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the president said that based on what he had been hearing, the fatalities may be more in the range of 2,000 to 2,500.

The Philippine government expressed gratitude for the assistance, but it also appeared anxious to retain basic strategic controls, which may have had the unintended consequence of hampering some relief efforts. The Tacloban airport control tower was destroyed, for example, forcing pilots flying in and out to navigate by sight, slowing deliveries. American officials said Tuesday that an agreement had been reached to allow the United States military to help manage air traffic control with a temporary replacement setup.

The BBC said Tacloban aid deliveries were further hampered by a shortage of aircraft that could land on the short runway. In a dispatch from Cebu International Airport, about 120 miles southwest, the BBC said some planes carrying aid for survivors had been delayed because they were too big to land in Tacloban.

William Hotchkiss, the director of the Philippine Civil Aviation Authority, told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that four of the five airports whose operations had been disrupted by the typhoon were now fully operating, with Tacloban’s allowing only “limited commercial airline operations” because of the relief effort there and damage to the airport.