A planeload of Canadian supplies in Bangkok, Thailand should be just days away from providing shelter for survivors of Burma's cyclone, says a Red Cross official.
"They are waiting for a plane that will deliver other supplies into (Rangoon, Burma)," Charlie Musoka, the Canadian Red Cross's emergency response manager for international operations, told CTV.ca from Ottawa on Saturday.
That should happen relatively quickly. The kits will go to the International Federation of the Red Cross for distribution by local Red Cross volunteers, he said.
The C-17 Globemaster aircraft left CFB Trenton on Wednesday, carrying about 2,000 emergency shelter kits.
The kits contain tarpaulins and the tools necessary for people to construct makeshift shelters.
They should be able to provide shelter for an estimated 10,000 people, Dena Allen, public affairs co-ordinator for the Canadian Red Cross in Ottawa, told CTV.ca.
The kits are flexible and allow people to repair homes that were damaged but not destroyed, she said.
Musoka declined to put a number on how many people need assistance with shelter, saying that was a job for Burma's government and the United Nations.
Compounding the problem is the fact that many areas "have not really been reached for appropriate needs assessment," he said.
The International Red Cross put out an appeal for $50 million on Friday for Burma relief efforts.
Burma's state-run television puts the official death toll from Cyclone Nargis, which struck on May 2-3, at 78,000 with an additional 56,000 missing. However, the International Red Cross believes at least 128,000 are dead, with more deaths possible if help doesn't get to the 2.5 million survivors.
Canada has also pledged $2 million in disaster assistance and offered the use of its Disaster Assistance Response Team -- if Burma's military government wants the help.
Earlier developments
Burma's junta took foreign diplomats on a tour of the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta as a French navy vessel idled offshore with emergency food and shelter.
The tour took three groups to different parts of the delta, which is the worst-hit part of Burma. Many saw the tour as a concession by a regime not willing to admit it has a problem coping with the disaster and has tried to quash news.
A security cordon has been established around Rangoon, the country's largest city, to keep foreign aid workers and journalists from going to the delta.
In another concession, the junta will allow in 160 aid workers from nations it considers friendly, including Thailand, India and Bangladesh.
A 32-member Thai medical team left for Rangoon, the country's largest city, on Saturday.
The United Nations has said the lack of access has left it largely in the dark about peoples' needs in the wake of the cyclone.
Aid groups describe a scene of survivors trying to find shelter wherever they can, seeking protection from monsoon rains that have drenched the area for two days.
The original cyclone's winds drove the rain so hard that it blistered people's skin, making it seem like they were sandblasted. This has left them vulnerable to infection.
Musoka said in his experience, people suffer first from the destruction of shelter and lack of food.
After a week or two, the lack of clean water starts leading to diarrhea and other disease problems, he said.
Skin infections are common among survivors because people can't stay clean. "They can get really nasty," he said.
Private citizens are doing what they can to ferry food into the delta area, but the Red Cross warns that the lack of clean water could lead to many more deaths.
Twenty-two kilometres off Burma's coast, France's Le Mistral had a cargo of 1,000 tons of food -- enough to feed 100,000 people for 15 days. The vessel also had shelters for 15,000 people.
"The specifics of the delivery of this aid have not yet been defined," said a statement by the French government.
On Friday, Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's UN ambassador, warned that the Burmese government's refusal to allow aid to be delivered "could lead to a true crime against humanity."
In Rangoon on Saturday, people were excited by news of the possible aid shipment.
However, the government has steadfastly refused to allow wide-scale access to foreign disaster relief experts. It insists that all foreign aid must be given to the government for distribution.
There have been allegations the government has hoarded high-quality aid and distributed rotting rice.
With files from The Associated Press
