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YANGON, Myanmar - Bodies floated in flood waters and survivors tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, while the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar said Wednesday that the toll from the cyclone and its aftermath may reach 100,000.

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AP

prices skyrocket: A worker tries to stop pigeons from eating packages of rice in Yangon, Myanmar, on Wednesday. Cyclone victims in Myanmar's biggest city faced new challenges Wednesday as markets doubled prices of rice, charcoal and bottled water, belying government claims that life was returning to normal after a storm that claimed some 23,000 lives.

Hungry crowds stormed the few shops that opened in the country's stricken Irrawaddy Delta, sparking fist fights, according to Paul Risley, a spokesman for the UN World Food Program in neighbouring Thailand.

Shari Villarosa, who heads the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar, said food and water are running short in the delta area and called the situation there "increasingly horrendous."

"There is a very real risk of disease outbreaks as long as this continues," Villarosa told reporters. The death toll could hit or exceed 100,000 as humanitarian conditions worsen, she said Wednesday.

State media in Myanmar, also known as Burma, reported that nearly 23,000 people died when cyclone Nargis blasted the country's western coast on Saturday and more than 42,000 others were missing.

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said Thursday that the cyclone's death toll may rise "very significantly."

The military junta normally restricts the access of foreign officials and organizations to the country, and aid groups were struggling to deliver relief goods.

Internal UN documents obtained by The Associated Press showed growing frustrations at foot-dragging by the junta, which has kept the impoverished country isolated for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control.

"Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out," according to the minutes of a meeting of the UN task force co-ordinating relief for Myanmar in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmar's government to speed up the arrival of aid workers and relief supplies "in every way possible."

State television in military-ruled Myanmar, though, said that the government would accept aid from any country and that help had arrived Wednesday from Japan, Bangladesh, Laos, Thailand, China, India and Singapore.

Local aid workers started distributing water purification tablets, mosquito nets, plastic sheeting and basic medical supplies.

But heavily flooded areas were accessible only by boat, with helicopters unable to deliver relief supplies there, said Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aid.

"Most urgent need is food and water," said Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the Children in Yangon. "Many people are getting sick. The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can't use tablets to purify salt water," he said.

Save the Children distributed food, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and chlorine tablets to 230,000 people in Yangon area. Trucks were sent to the delta on Wednesday, carrying rice, salt, sugar and tarpaulin.

A Yangon resident who returned home from the area said people are drinking coconut water because of lack of safe drinking water. He said many people were on boats using blankets as sails.

Local aid groups were distributing rice porridge, which people were collecting in dirty plastic shopping bags. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared getting into trouble with authorities for talking to a foreign news agency.