BEIRA, Mozambique (AP) — Relief operations are pressing into remote areas to find survivors of the cyclone that ripped into central Mozambique, while trucks carrying aid attempt to travel a badly damaged road to the hard-hit city of Beira.

The United Nations is making an emergency appeal for $282 million for the next three months and says some 1.8 million people in Mozambique need urgent help after Cyclone Idai.

Authorities say the death toll of at least 761 is "very preliminary" and more bodies will be found as floodwaters drain away.

Diseases such as cholera are expected as more than a quarter-million survivors gather in displacement camps both formal and informal.

The United States says it has donated nearly $3.4 million in emergency food assistance to the U.N.'s World Food Program.