Monday, November 1, 1999 Published at 12:44 GMT
World: South Asia
Relief effort for cyclone victims
People have been cut off by flooded roads
Relief operations are finally gathering momentum in the eastern Indian state of Orissa for the victims of last week's devastating cyclone.
As many as 10 million people have been affected, and thousands are feared to have been killed.
For the first time since the cyclone struck on Friday, military helicopters have been flying sorties with sacks of food to the thousands of people cut off in large swathes of inundated land between the state capital of Bhubaneshwar and the sea.
The military is taking a lead role bringing in supplies and restoring essential services to the worst-hit areas, where people are having to cope with food, water and electricity shortages.
The airport in the state capital Bhubaneshwar has reopened, and flights bringing in media, aid workers and politicians are said to have landed.
There have been reports of food riots by desperate people in Orissa after days without help, and some say cars moving on a reopened highway were looted by villagers.
A state official said three warehouses of the Food Corporation of India had also been ransacked.
Navy ships bearing food, candles, clothes and other relief materials are heading towards Paradip port in Orissa, according to a government statement.
Shelter is a particularly urgent need at the moment, with up to one-and-a-half million people homeless.
In total, about 10 million people have been affected by the storm, which generated winds of over 250km/h (160mph) after roaring in from the Bay of Bengal on Friday.
He told the BBC that no trees or houses were visible and entire villages had apparently just disappeared.
Mr Gamang has described the cyclone as the storm of the century.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who called the cyclone a ''national calamity'', has announced a three billion rupee ($69m) rescue package.
BBC South Asia correspondent Mike Wooldridge says initial aerial surveys suggest the destruction could be even worse than a 1971 cyclone, which killed 10,000 people.