The military had begun using helicopters to deliver small amounts of provisions to Calang, which is even more isolated.

At the military air base outside Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, Australian and U.S. transport planes flew in emergency food, bottled water and medicine. Workers at the base showed greater urgency than in previous days, unloading the aircraft and dispatching goods by truck to tens of thousands of refugees sheltered in camps, mosques, schools and other public buildings.

Nonetheless, boxes remained piled high in a hangar awaiting distribution.

The U.N. Children's Fund said it was sending enough medicines, tarpaulins and hygiene kits to Aceh to support 200,000 people. World Vision, an aid group, was establishing 20 children's centers in Indonesia, including special tents for physical and psychological support.

Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, truck convoys were delivering 5,000 tons of food stockpiled by the United Nations to eastern and northern portions of the island. The shipments, which included rice, wheat flour, lentils and sugar, were intended by Jan. 6 to provide 750,000 people with enough food for two weeks.

The U.N. food program also was airlifting food to Indonesia's Aceh province and sending food overland to Somalia.

With more than 4,000 people unaccounted for in Sri Lanka, television channels devoted 10 minutes of every hour to reading the names and details of the missing.

The international organization Doctors Without Borders said a charter plane with 40 tons of water, sanitation equipment and medical and surgical material was en route to Sri Lanka. That included three kits capable of setting up hospitals to care for 30,000 people for three months.

India

In India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, military planes continued to send relief supplies of grains, medicines and water. But it was unclear whether those stranded deep in the thick of the forests were receiving assistance.

"Our planes are regularly taking food, medicines and water to the islands. Helicopters launched from the ships are airdropping food packets and medicines to the remote areas," Commandant Salil Mehta said in a telephone interview from Port Blair, the capital of the island group. He denied reports of starvation among an island population of about 280,000, saying that military flights were looking for survivors and airlifting food everywhere they could. Although some people may be inside the jungles where "we cannot see them, then we don't drop the food," he said.