the overall death toll was, at minimum, 224,000. The worst effects were felt in Tazumuddin, where the mortality was 46.3%, corresponding to approximately 77,000 deaths in Thana alone. The mean mortality throughout the affected region was 16.5%. The results showed that the highest survival rate was for adult males aged 15–49, while more than half the deaths were children under age 10, who only formed a third of the pre-cyclone population. This suggests that the young, old, and sick were at the highest risk of perishing in the cyclone and its storm surge. In the months after the storm, the mortality of the middle-aged was lower in the cyclone area than in the control region, near Dhaka. This reflected the storm's toll on the less healthy individuals. Aftermath Government response The day after the storm struck the coast, three Pakistani gunboats and a hospital ship carrying medical personnel and supplies left Chittagong for the islands of Hatia, Sandwip and Kutubdia. Teams from the Pakistani Army reached many of the stricken areas in the two days following the landfall of the cyclone. Yahya visited East Pakistan on the way back from a trip to China. In a press conference in Dhaka, Yahya accepted the government had made “slips” and “mistakes” in their relief effort for the cyclone victims of then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh,) but he insisted that “everything was done within the limits of the Government.” He then returned to Rawalpindi. No West Pakistani political leaders visited the East. In the ten days following the cyclone, one military transport aircraft and three crop-dusting aircraft were assigned to relief work by the Pakistani central government. The central government said it was unable to transfer military helicopters from West Pakistan as the Indian government did not grant clearance to cross the intervening Indian territory, a charge the Indian government denied. By November 24, the central government had allocated a further US$116 million to finance relief operations in the disaster area. President Khan arrived in Dhaka to take charge of the relief operations on November 24. The governor of East Pakistan, Vice Admiral S. M. Ahsan, denied charges that the armed forces had not acted quickly enough and said supplies were reaching all parts of the disaster area except for some small pockets. A week after the cyclone's landfall, President Khan conceded that his government had made "slips" and "mistakes" in its handling