Regarding the helicopters.

I'm not exactly sure of the math (its a bit late) but I think you would need over 30,000 helicopter flights (Navy SH60) per day to provide 1 gallon of water to each of the 3 million people. I think that works out to around 3,000 helicopters and crews assuming all maint work is done at night.

Ships, railroads and trucks are how you move large amounts of supplies.

- Eric