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YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar's monumental task of feeding and sheltering 1.5 million cyclone survivors suffered yet another blow Sunday when a boat laden with relief supplies — one of the first international shipments — sank on its way to the disaster zone.

The death toll jumped to more than 28,000, and British Foreign Secretary David Mili-band warned that "malign neglect" by the isolated nation's military rulers was creating a "humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions."

The junta has been sharply criticized for its handling of the May 3 disaster, from failing to provide adequate warnings of the pending storm to responding slowly to offers of help.

Though international assistance has started trickling in, the few foreign relief workers who have been allowed entry into Myanmar have been restricted to the largest city of Yangon. Only a handful have succeeded in getting past checkpoints into the worst-affected areas.

But in what was seen as a huge concession by the junta, the U.S. finally got the go-ahead to send a C-130 cargo plane packed with supplies to Yangon today, with two more air shipments set to land Tuesday.

Myanmar's military rulers are deeply suspicious of Washington, which has long been one of the junta's biggest critics, pointing to human-rights abuses and its failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Highlighting the many challenges ahead, however, a Red Cross boat carrying rice, water and other goods for more than 1,000 people sank Sunday near hard-hit Bogalay town. All four aid workers aboard were safe.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies could not say how much of the cargo has been lost, but it said the food supplies were contaminated by river water.

"Apart from the delay in getting aid to people, we may now have to re-evaluate how we transport that aid," said Michael Annear, the IFRC's disaster manager in Yangon, who described the sinking as "a big blow."

Other aid was increasingly getting through, the group said, but on "nowhere near the scale required."

Heavy showers are forecast for this week, further complicating delivery of aid that is still barely reaching victims in the Irrawaddy delta, which was pounded by 120-mph winds and 12-foot-high storm surges from the sea.

In hard-hit Laputta, hundreds of survivors crowded the floor of a monastery's open-air hall, the sound of hungry children wailing. Many people tried to sleep sitting up because of lack of space.

Pain Na Kon, a tiny nearby village of just 300, was obliterated. The only 12 known survivors huddled together in a tent set up in a rice field, sharing a small portion of biscuits and watery soup handed out at a monastery.

On Sunday, Myanmar's state television said the death toll from Cyclone Nargis had gone up by about 5,000 to 28,458 — with another 33,416 missing — though some experts said it could be 15 times that if people do not get clean water and sanitation soon.

"A natural disaster is turning into a humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions in significant part because of the malign neglect of the regime," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

"I would be amazed if there hadn't been about 100,000 who had died already . . . what's more, hundreds of thousands more are at risk," he told BBC television.