DHAKA (Reuters) - Relief workers and the Bangladesh army, air force and navy intensified efforts on Tuesday to reach millions of survivors of a cyclone that killed nearly 3,500 people along the Bay of Bengal.
A huge relief operation was under way with the aim of reaching almost all the affected areas.
Bangladesh army relief and rescue teams have reached 70 percent of the affected areas, said officers manning a military control room opened after Cyclone Sidr smashed into low-lying coastal areas on Thursday.
"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.
Ten MI-17 helicopters and three planes are already in use and they will be joined shortly by two C-130 transport aircraft from the U.S. Marines, he said.
"We will cover the rest of the ground in a day or two," a disaster management official said on Tuesday.
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 250 kph (155 mph) winds that whipped up a five-metre (16-foot) tidal surge.
The disaster was the worst in the impoverished country of 140 million since 1991 when a cyclone and storm surge killed around 143,000 people.
The country's army-backed interim government said supplies will increase over the next weeks once $142 million in promised emergency relief from international donors and the King of Saudi Arabia starts rolling in.
