TACLOBAN, Philippines — Thousands of people stormed a rice warehouse on an island devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, authorities said Wednesday, highlighting the urgent need to get water, food and medical supplies into an increasingly desperate region.

Five days after one of the strongest tropical storms on record leveled tens of thousands of houses in the central Philippines, relief operations were only starting to pick up pace, with two more airports in the region reopening, allowing for more aid flights.

But minimal food and water was reaching people in the devastated city of Tacloban, on Leyte island, which bore the brunt of the storm, and outlying regions due to a lack of trucks and blocked roads.

“There’s a bit of a logjam to be absolutely honest getting stuff in here,” said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“You’ve had quite a lot of security coming in over the last couple of days, less so other things. So then it gets here and then we’re going to have a real challenge with logistics in terms of getting things out of here, into town, out of town, into the other areas,” he said from the airport in Tacloban.

2,344 confirmed deaths, with another 3,804 hurt, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. President Benigno Aquino III told CNN that the death toll could be 2,000 or 2,500, lower than earlier estimates by two officials who said it could hit 10,000.