There was nowhere to hide for victims of Typhoon Haiyan

Philippine authorities were sure they had done enough to prevent mass casualties from Super Typhoon Haiyan, but with 10,000 people feared dead experts say parts of the country may be helpless against relentless storms.

The nation endures seemingly never-ending natural disasters, many of them deadly, and President Benigno Aquino has made saving lives a priority by improving preparations for them.

With nearly one million people evacuated from high-risk areas and a highly publicised alert system in place before Haiyan made landfall on Friday, Aquino's aides expressed confidence that this time they were prepared.

But Haiyan turned out to be one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded, and sent waves up to five metres high hundreds of metres inland, wiping out entire communities.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) warned that the damage could even rival the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that left tens of thousands dead and whose effects are still being felt.

Still, experts said the extent of death and destruction was largely beyond the control of local authorities, which also meant the same problems could again lead to widespread carnage.

"This storm is unprecedented. Many things like this are outside of human intervention," International Labour Organisation country director Lawrence Jeff Johnson said. "They did what they could. There were a lot of lives saved."