Geneva: The UN's World Food Program has reached the first of approximately 1 million people left homeless by the devastating cyclone that ravaged the coast of Myanmar.

However, flooding and road damage have cut off access to many coastal areas, it added.

WFP food assistance has started reaching people in need in the country’s second largest city of Yangon, the agency’s Myanmar director said in a statement on Tuesday.

Additional truckloads of food were to arrive to the hardest hit town of Labutta on Wednesday.

Travel and visa barriers initially hindered aid deliveries, officials said, but Myanmar soon began accepting supplies from the global relief effort.


The food agency said its assessment teams were reporting tremendous storm damage to homes and shelter in villages along Myanmar's coast, and feared the death toll was rising.