Death toll from Myanmar cyclone nearly doubles

Aid groups have reached only 270,000 people so far, and the situation for survivors will likely get more difficult as time passes without proper help.

Lack of clean water will be deadly in the Irrawaddy delta, Thomas Gurtner, the head of operations for the international Red Cross, told The Associated Press in Geneva.

"To be able to provide clean water to hundreds of thousands of people stranded in the delta requires a major operation, which we have neither the material, the logistical nor the staff capacity to do," he said.

Officials also worry about disease outbreaks.

The U.S. military flew four more flights of emergency supplies into Yangon on Friday, raising its total to 17 since Monday. Two of the flights carried aid provided by the Thai government. India was also readying flights.

The U.N. says the regime has issued only 40 visas to its staffers and another 46 to nongovernment agencies and has confined the personnel to the immediate Yangon area.

Marshall, the U.N. official, said the military has set up checkpoints on the two main roads to the delta to keep foreigners out of the disaster zone. Even local staff have to negotiate with the military to gain access to the camps.

UNICEF said Friday the agency's fourth flight into Myanmar, scheduled for Saturday, would deliver several tons of food for malnourished children. Radio broadcasts are trying to help lost children find their families, it said.

In the meantime, ordinary people are stepping in, with shopkeepers handing out rice gruel and medical students caring for the sick.

But the government was reportedly interfering with those efforts as well.