BANGLADESH:Relief workers and the Bangladesh military yesterday reached the last remaining pockets of the country devastated by a cyclone that killed nearly 3,500 people along the Bay of Bengal.
It has taken nearly five days to gain access to the hardest hit areas in a massive ground, sea and air operation.
Two US C-130 transport aircraft and two American naval vessels were poised to join the effort.
"We have reinforced relief efforts by adding more helicopters and cargo planes to fly food, medicine, water and other essential goods to the survivors," said an army official. But food supplies were still woefully inadequate.
"Hundreds of hands go up to grab just one food packet. This is a mad rush but a tragic reality on the entire coastline ravaged by the cyclone," said a relief operator in the Patuakhali district.
The Category Four cyclone struck late on Thursday with 250km/h (155mph) winds that whipped up a 5m (16ft) tidal surge. The disaster was the worst in the impoverished country of 140 million since 1991, when a cyclone and storm surge killed some 143,000 people.
The army-backed interim government said supplies would increase in coming weeks once $142 million (€96 million) in promised emergency relief from international donors and the King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia starts rolling in.
In a related development the United Nations said it had authorised a first disbursement of $8.75 million to support the relief effort.
"I hope this . . . will enable some important and immediate life-saving needs to be met," UN emergency relief co-ordinator John Holmes said in a statement from Geneva.
The world body was distributing 208 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, shelter materials for 18,000 households and 240,000 packets of water-purifying powder for 48,000 families, it said.
A local official in Patuakhali said children had started returning to class, but some teachers held classes in the open because thousands of school buildings had been destroyed.
Meanwhile, director of US foreign assistance and USAID administrator Henrietta H Fore arrived in Dhaka to assess the damage and the need for assistance.
"President Bush has asked me to inform you that both civilian and military assistance would come in the next days for the cyclone victims in Bangladesh," she told reporters.
"The two naval ships with greater capacity for evacuation are expected to arrive in Bangladesh on November 23rd and November 27th." Washington has pledged $2.1 million in emergency aid.
The 6,000sq km (2,317sq m) Bangladesh portion of the world heritage Sundarbans mangrove forests, home to more than 400 Royal Bengal tigers, was devastated, foresters said.