Four days after cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people, rescuers were struggling to reach isolated areas along the Bangladesh's devastated coast and give aid to millions of survivors.
By nightfall, as survivors buried their loved ones and waited for aid to arrive, the official figure was put at 3,113 with reports finally coming in from storm-ravaged areas cut off by washed-out roads and downed phone lines.
Some 3,322 are considered injured and 1,063 reported missing, Lieutenant-Col Main Ullah Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka.
Storm survivors eat on a relief center in Mirzagannj. Reuters
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society warned the toll from tropical cyclone Sidr, the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh in a decade, could hit 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying islands.
While it will take several days to determine the number of dead and missing, some 3 million survivors who were either evacuated from the low-lying southern coast or whose homes and villages were destroyed will need support, the government said.
Aid workers fear inadequate supplies of food, drinking water and medicine could lead to outbreaks of disease.
The country's interim leader Fakhruddin Ahmed toured some of the worst-hit areas today, handing out food to survivors and promising, "we will help you as best as we can."
Helicopters airlifted food to survivors today while rescuers struggled to reach remote areas. The army helicopters carried mostly high-protein biscuits supplied by the World Food Program.
Grieving families begged for clothes to wrap around the bodies of dead relatives for burial. In some areas, corpses were put in mass graves. Reporters in the affected districts said bodies were being discovered by the hour in the rivers, paddy fields and under piles of debris.
Cyclone Sidr smashed into the country's southern coastline late on Thursday with 250 kph winds that whipped up a five metre tidal surge. In its wake, dead people and animals floated down rivers and the stench of death filled the air.
A much improved disaster preparedness plan, including storm shelters built all along the southern coastline since the 1991 storm, has been credited with saving hundreds of lives.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that several million dollars were available from the organisation's emergency response funds.
He expressed his "profound condolences to the people and government of Bangladesh for the many deaths and the destruction involved, and the full solidarity of the UN system at this time of crisis,".