Aid groups are still working to reach the most isolated and remote victims of a powerful cyclone that struck Bangladesh on Thursday, killing more than 3,100.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society has warned that the death toll could climb as high as 10,000 when all the deaths are finally reported.

The official death toll rose to 3,113 after reports from areas that had been closed off because of downed telephone lines and closed roads, said army spokesman Lt.-Col. Main Ullah Chowdhury.

Tropical cyclone Sidr, with its 240 km/h winds, is the worst storm to hit the region in a decade.

The society's chairman, Mohammad Abdur Rob, told The Associated Press that the estimate was based on assessments from thousands of volunteers participating in rescue operations in the region.

On Monday morning, many survivors were still waiting for help to arrive.

"As of this morning the death toll is over 3,000 according to government figures. And as I'm talking this morning there are several areas that are still inaccessible and the death toll could rise," said Vince Edwards, a World Vision worker on the ground in Bangladesh.

He told CTV's Canada AM the hardest hit areas were located in the south and southwest of Bangladesh.

Houses, many of them built out of mud and bamboo, have been destroyed, along with fields and crops.

"There has been a huge loss on rice ready for harvest next month -- 761,000 acres of crops are lost. I've been talking to several families who have lost their houses as well as their crops, and one of the questions on their mind is how are we going to survive in the coming days?" Edwards said by phone from Bangladesh.

Many schools have been damaged or destroyed, along with children's educational materials, causing students to worry.

"One of their requests to us was to get their schools rebuilt so that they can go to school and get their lives back to normal," said Edwards.

On Monday, relief crews airlifted food to hungry survivors while rescuers continued to try and press through to the most remote and isolated areas.

World Vision Canada has pledged $100,000 to the relief effort, and international aid groups have committed $25 million in initial relief commitments.

However, tents, rice and water -- some of the most desperately needed materials, have been slow to arrive.

Some of the people affected by the cyclone, such as Dhalan Mridha, said they didn't listen to the cyclone warning -- and paid the price.

"Nothing is going to happen. That was our first thought and we went to bed. Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our small hut was swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for shelter," said Mridha, a 45-year-old farm worker from Galachipa, a fishing village along the coast in Patuakhali district.

While attempting to make it to a shelter, Mridha was separated from his wife, mother and child. A day later he found their bodies in a battered bush along the coast.

At least 1.5 million people living in villages along the coast were able to flee before the storm, thanks to an early warning system.

Bangladesh is often battered by vicious storms that kill large numbers of people each year.

Before Sidr, the deadliest storm was in 1996, when a tornado killed 621 people and flattened 80 villages in northern Bangladesh.

With a report from The Associated Press