Bangladesh and India launched major relief operations on Tuesday after a cyclone slammed into the northern coast of the Bay of Bengal, killing at least 84 people, officials said.
Many of the casualties in Bangladesh were reported to be children who drowned when Cyclone Aila triggered a tidal surge four-metres (13-feet) high as it made landfall on Monday.
About 430 000 people were marooned and military and civil defence teams were struggling to deliver food, water and emergency shelters, government officials in Dhaka told AFP.
Bangladesh’s disaster management minister Abdur Razzak said people on remote islands had been worst affected and could not be reached because of rough seas.
“Army helicopters are being deployed to carry food and other supplies until the seas calm,” he said.
Motiur Rahman, police chief of the Bangladeshi town of Shyamnagar, said at least 23 people had died in his area alone after a dam burst and houses were washed away.
The government’s disaster control head Asraf-uz-Zaman, who uses one name, said 26 others had died in other districts in Bangladesh.
“So far we estimate a total of about 1,33-million people have been affected,” he said.
At least 35 people were also killed in India’s West Bengal when the cyclone hit the crowded state capital of Kolkata, bringing down trees and electricity towers, and smashing cars, the state’s relief minister Mortaza Hossain said.
“The cyclone left a trail of destruction everywhere. Army and border guards have been called out to clear the debris and to reach out to the affected areas with relief,” he said.
Several people were killed in vehicle accidents involving fallen trees, he said.
As well as the loss of life, tens of thousands of people lost their homes and livelihoods with scores of shrimp farms destroyed across the region.
“The situation is very grim. These people are homeless. Their homes have been destroyed,” area chief Kazi Atiur Rahman told AFP via telephone from the Bangladeshi coastal district of Khulna, close to the border with India.
“We’ve lost at least 50 000 bamboo and mud-built houses which have been washed away by tidal water.”
Rahman said the tidal surge of sea water meant demand for fresh drinking supplies was urgent.
In neighbouring Koyra district, 20 000 houses were destroyed by the surge and strong winds of up to 90 km/h, local official Arif Pasha said.
“People have taken shelter wherever they could. District authorities have sent army, navy and coastguard teams to rescue some of the people trapped by the water,” he said.
Bangladesh police said rescue teams were yet to reach many coastal villages.
The low-lying region frequently experiences tropical storms and cyclones during the monsoon season.
In 2007, more than 3 500 people were killed, most of them in Bangladesh, when Cyclone Sidr hit the same districts. — AFP