A United Nations agency says it has joined forces with Bangladesh's Air Force to airdrop emergency supplies to hundreds of thousands of people devastated by last week's Cyclone Sidr.
The World Food Program says it has delivered high-energy biscuits to more than 650-thousand Bangladeshis so far. Military ships and helicopters are being used to deliver food, water, tents and other emergency supplies to those stranded on islands in the Bay of Bengal and other areas that remain cut off.
Officials fear outbreaks of disease as bodies rot in rivers and fields. A UNICEF representative in Bangladesh (Louis-George Arsenault) described the scene as "apocalyptic." International aid is pouring into Bangladesh as relief officials warn the number of dead killed in Thursday's storm could reach as high as 10-thousand. The government puts the death toll at 31-hundred with one-thousand others listed as missing. Disaster officials say Bangladesh has received aid pledges totaling 140 million dollars.