- Story Highlights
- NEW: Rotting corpses pile up as military junta continues to drag feet
- Four aid planes finally get permission to land in the devastated country
- Lack of clean water, food and medical supplies prompt disease fears
- U.N. official says nearly 2,000 square miles remains underwater
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Myanmar's cyclone survivors do not have enough fuel to burn the rotting corpses of the dead as the country's military junta continues to drag its feet over access for aid groups.
Relief agencies said decomposing corpses littered ditches and fields in the worst hit Irrawaddy delta area as survivors tried to conserve fuel for the transporting of much needed supplies.
The international community was growing increasingly frustrated Thursday with the junta's lack of progress in granting visas for relief workers and giving clearance for aid flights to land.
They were concerned the lack of medical supplies and clean food and water threatened to increase the already staggering death toll.
Myanmar's military government says more than 22,000 people died when the killer cyclone battered the country's low-lying delta region over the weekend. The top U.S. diplomat in the country said the toll could top 100,000.
Four World Food Programme (WFP) planes laden with supplies were finally given permission to land in the country Thursday, according to The Associated Press. The first, from Italy, landed Thursday morning.
"We have gotten valuable cooperation. The first steps have been taken," Bettina Luescher, a spokeswoman for the WFP, told CNN Thursday morning. "But it's taking too slow. It needs to go much quicker.
"We have lots of experience in situations like these. We know how to do this," WFP's Luescher said. "We just need the cooperation."
Paul Risley, another WFP spokesman, told CNN that there were reports of "civil unrest" in the worst-hit areas where people were scrambling for limited food supplies.
He said U.N. assessment teams had observed "large crowds gathering around shops -- the few that were open -- literally fighting over the chance to buy what food was available."
There were also reports of price gouging in urban areas around Yangon, Myanmar's largest city and former capital, Risley said.
Shari Villarosa, U.S. charge d'affaires in Yangon, said the "situation in the delta sounds more and more horrendous."
The delta region had few roads to begin with, many of them were now under water and the storm had washed away numerous bridges, Villarosa said.
Look at satellite pictures of the damage by the flooding »
CNN's Dan Rivers, one of the few international journalists to have visited the hardest-hit areas of Myanmar, said relief had not reached the people who needed it most.
"We're hearing dreadful stories of hundreds of dead bodies left lying in the fields, decomposing," he said. "These people need help immediately."
China urges Myanmar junta to 'open up'
Meanwhile, China urged close ally Myanmar to work with the international community to help overcome the disaster.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday that it hoped the country would "cooperate with the international community" to help overcome the disaster quickly.
The U.S has also been pushing for access, pledging $3.25 million and offering to send U.S. Navy ships to the region to help relief efforts.
The U.S. military had already flown six helicopters on to a Thai airbase, as Washington awaits permission to go into the south Asian country, two senior military officials told CNN's Barbara Starr.
In addition, several C-130 cargo aircraft aboard the USS Essex, which was conducting an exercise in the region, were available for relief missions.
Eric John, the U.S. ambassador to Thailand, told AP Thursday that they had still not been given permission to send relief flights to Myanmar despite reports to the contrary.
The U.S. and other nations do not recognize the military junta -- which maintained control of the country even after 1990, when an opposition political party won victory in democratic elections. The country's name was changed from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. 
Learn more about Myanmar's recent history »
Aid strategy: Don't 'flood' Yangon
Gregory Beck, of the International Rescue Committee, said the struggle to get aid workers and supplies into the country continued.
"We can't delay on this -- this is a huge disaster and the longer [Myanmar] waits the worse it's going to become." 
Watch a report from Rivers on the growing desperation in Myanmar »
Myanmar's government has asked for international aid, but the junta has balked at allowing assessment teams into the country -- a step that most agencies and countries take before deciding how much and what kind of aid to provide.
The strategy is not to "flood Yangon" with aid workers, but get 30 to 40 experienced U.N staffers into the country, according to Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"It's quality over quantity," he said from his office in Bangkok.
Horsey said Myanmar's government "is more open to goods" rather than aid workers, but said it was understandable considering the military regime's "reticence to engage with the international community." But he pointed out that such a major disaster "would overwhelm any government."
Horsey said the regime had provided a number of helicopters and a larger number of boats to the relief effort.
He said the main hurdle was getting them into the flood-soaked delta, where nearly 2,000 square miles (5,000 square kilometers) remained underwater.
"When vast areas are flooded.. helicopters can't land," Horsey said. "When you get down to the tip of the delta, it's not much above sea level. When you get a major storm surge ... it doesn't drain back again."
The problem, he said, was compounded by the current monsoon period in South Asia.
One of the hardest-hit areas is Pyinzalu, a small town on the tip of the Irrawaddy delta, which has not fully recovered from the 2004 tsunami, according to World Vision health advisor Dr. Kyi Minn in Yangon.
Survivors from the delta villages described bodies along the road and floating in the rivers as they walked more than 100 kilometers to Yangon. That, Minn said, has had a significant mental impact on the survivors.
Yangon was pretty much back to normal, he said. Roads had been cleared of debris, and electricity and potable water were available. Watch a report on the damage to Myanmar's infrastructure »
U.S. envoy: Myanmar deaths may top 100000
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- The death toll from the cyclone that ravaged the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar may exceed 100,000, the senior U.S. diplomat in the military-ruled country said Wednesday.
A girl drinks water from a container as her homeless family eat donated food in the outskirts of Yangon on May 7.
The U.S. figure is almost five times the 22,000 the Myanmar government has estimated.
The U.S. estimate is based on data from an international non-governmental organization, Villarosa said without naming the group. She called the situation in Myanmar "more and more horrendous."
"I think most of the damage was caused by these 12-foot storm surges," she said.
Villarosa also said that about 95 percent of the buildings in the delta region were destroyed when Cyclone Nargis battered the area late Friday into Saturday.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice once again called on the junta to allow aid into the country and said she is speaking with leaders from other nations who may be able to help persuade Myanmar's leaders to do so.
"It should be a simple matter," Rice said. "This is not a matter of politics; this is a matter of a humanitarian crisis, and it should be a matter that the government of Burma wants to see its people receive the help that is available to them, and so we are speaking with governments that might have influence with Burma."
Myanmar is also known as Burma.
The United States has pledged $3.25 million and offered to send Navy ships to the region to help relief efforts -- if Myanmar's government agrees.
The U.S. military has flown six cargo helicopters onto a Thai airbase as Washington awaits permission to go into the south Asian country, two senior military officials told CNN's Barbara Starr.
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Villarosa said 70,000 people are missing in the Irrawaddy Delta, which has a population of nearly 6 million people. The official Myanmar government figure for the missing is 41,000.
"I can only assume that the longer the delay, the more victims that are created," Villarosa said.
Little aid has reached the area since Nargis hit, and on Wednesday, crowds of hungry survivors stormed reopened shops in the devastated Irrawaddy delta.
The United Nations urged the military junta to grant visas to international relief workers amid estimates of 1 million homeless.
A United Nations official said that nearly 2,000 square miles (5,000 square km) of the hard-hit delta are still underwater. See amateur video of the cyclone's crashing ashore »
Charity workers have gathered at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, with vehicles, emergency food supplies and medicine, waiting for their visa requests to be approved.
"We need this to move much faster," said John Holmes, U.N. humanitarian chief, after reading a statement from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
There were reports of "civil unrest" in the worst-hit areas where people are scrambling for limited food supplies, a U.N. spokesman said.
In the flood-soaked Irrawaddy delta townships, U.N. assessment teams observed "large crowds gathering around shops -- the few that were open -- literally fighting over the chance to buy what food was available," World Food Program spokesman Paul Risley said Wednesday from Bangkok.
There were also also reports of price gouging in urban areas around Yangon, Myanmar's largest city and former capital.
"There were long lines of people trying to buy what food was available, even at those higher prices," Risley said.
The delta, Myanmar's rice-growing heartland, has been devastated by Cyclone Nargis, threatening long-term food shortages for survivors, experts said.
"We can't delay on this; this is a huge disaster, and the longer [Myanmar] waits, the worse it's going to become," International Rescue Committee spokesman Gregory Beck said.
The Rome, Italy-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that five states hit hardest by Saturday's cyclone produce 65 percent of the country's rice, The Associated Press reported.
"There is likely going to be incredible shortages in the next 18 to 24 months," Sean Turnell, an economist specializing in Myanmar at Australia's Macquarie University, told AP.
Holmes said 24 countries had pledged financial support, with a total of $30 million expected in aid.
The WFP, which has started feeding the estimated million homeless, said there were immediate concerns about salvaging harvested rice in the flooded Irrawaddy delta. An iReporter documents the destruction »
The cyclone battered the country with winds of 240 kph (150 mph) and 3.5-meter (11.48 feet) storm surges.
Damage was also extensive in the country's largest city, Yangon. Much of the former capital is without power and littered with debris and fallen trees. See photos of the destruction »
CNN's Dan Rivers, the first Western journalist into the devastated town of Bogalay, said Wednesday that it was difficult to find the words to describe the level of destruction. Watch Rivers describe the critical situation »
"Ninety percent of the houses have been flattened. ... The help that these people are getting seems to be pretty much nonexistent, from what we've seen."
He saw members of Myanmar's army clearing roads but handing out little food or medicine.
"There has been scant help, really. I think we saw one or two Red Cross vehicles in the entire time we were driving," Rivers said of his travels over a 12-hour period. Learn more about Myanmar »
Hundreds of World Vision staff are in Myanmar with limited supplies, according to spokesman James East.
Tons of supplies have been readied in Dubai and can be brought in quickly once clearance is given.
"Even when aid comes in, it's going to be a logistical nightmare to get it out to the remote delta region," East said.
However, Yangon is almost back to normal, World Vision health adviser Dr. Kyi Minn said. Roads have been cleared of debris, and electricity and potable water are available.
The Myanmar Red Cross has been handing out relief supplies, such as drinking water, plastic sheeting, clothing, insecticide- treated bed nets to help prevent malaria, and kitchen items, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
Based on a satellite map made available by the U.N., the storm's damage was concentrated over a 30,000-square- kilometer area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines, home to nearly a quarter of Myanmar's 57 million people.
