Relief workers and the Bangladesh military on Tuesday 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 five days to gain access to the hardest-hit areas in an operation involving helicopters, planes and boats, as well as thousands of ground troops and aid workers.
Two United States 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 winds that whipped up a 5m-high tidal surge. The disaster was the worst in the impoverished country of 140-million since 1991 when a cyclone and storm surge killed about 143 000 people.
"Food, clothes and shelter are needed immediately for the survivors who are resilient and are trying to start the life anew," said Louis-Georges Arsenault, of the United Nations Children’s Fund, after visiting some of the worst-hit areas.
The country’s army-backed interim government said supplies will increase in coming weeks once $142-million in promised emergency relief from international donors and the king of Saudi Arabia starts rolling in.
Officials in the affected areas — mostly inhabited by fishermen but also some farmers — said a shortage of drinking water and medicine has caused outbreaks of diarrhoea in many places.
The navy and coast guard have started to work on rebuilding homes, defence sources said, and troops are helping civil officials to remove uprooted trees blocking highways.
A local official in Patuakhali said children have started returning to class, but some teachers are holding classes out in the open because thousands of school buildings had been destroyed.
Director of US Foreign Assistance and USAid administrator Henrietta H Fore arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday to assess the damage and the need for assistance.
"President [George] 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 23 and November 27," she said.
Washington has already pledged $2,1-million in emergency aid.
The 6 000-square-kilometre Bangladesh portion of the world heritage Sundarbans mangrove forests, home to more than 400 Royal Bengal tigers, was badly devastated, foresters said.