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For the third year in a row, the Philippines has been hit by a major storm claiming more than 1,000 lives, and the death toll from Haiyan, one of the worst on record, could climb to 10,000.

With thousands of islands in the warm waters of the Pacific, the Philippines is destined to face the wrath of angry tropical storms year after year.

So what can a poor, densely populated country can do to mitigate the huge loss of life and the massive destruction?

Here are some of the challenges and potential solutions for this recurring nightmare facing the Philippines.

The Curse Of Beautiful Islands: Stunning islands lined with palm trees and set in a sapphire sea are great for a tropical vacation and a monstrous logistical headache if you are trying to prepare for or respond to a typhoon.

It's much faster and cheaper to move large numbers of people and supplies in cars and trucks. But with everyone living on islands, mass evacuations are extremely difficult to pull off. To make things more difficult, many Filipinos are impoverished and live in badly constructed homes on land that is vulnerable to severe weather.

Given the geography, the Philippines needs planes and helicopters, boats and ferries to move people out and send assistance in.

Dr. Hilarie Cranmer, a disaster medical relief specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told NPR that the Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is doing some things very well, such as providing extremely detailed situation reports.

Still, the Philippines has limited resources. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 and Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast last year, the U.S. government pumped in billions of dollars for relief and recovery.

The Philippines government has so far proposed a $50 million effort, Steven Rood, who represents the Asia Foundation in the Philippines, told NPR. He estimated the government has perhaps $1 billion a year in its budget to handle such emergencies.

Calling On The U.S. Military: The Philippines has turned to the U.S. military for help on multiple occasions. The Americans used to have to major bases and thousands of sailors and airmen based in the Philippines, but the bases were closed in 1992 in large part because the Philippines wanted them out.

Now it takes the U.S. forces longer to get to the scene of a disaster. The U.S. has so far sent several hundreds Marines from Japan. An aircraft carrier is on the way, but it's not expected for another couple days, or nearly a week after the typhoon hit.

Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, who's leading the U.S. effort, has flown over the devastated city of Tacloban and he described the challenges he faces on NPR's Morning Edition:

"A first priority is a place where we can land even 30 airplanes. You take for granted all the infrastructure that goes into running an air field. You need a tower. You need lights. You need electricity. You need gas. You need space to offload your aircraft. You need people with forklifts. You need all of that, none of which is present. It has been destroyed or washed out to sea or washed into the interior of the city."