/ 17 November 2007

Bangladesh cyclone toll nears 1 100

Military ships and helicopters were trying on Saturday to reach thousands of survivors of a super cyclone that killed nearly 1 100 people and pummelled impoverished Bangladesh with mighty winds and waves. Cyclone Sidr smashed into the country’s southern coastline late on Thursday night with 250km/h winds that whipped up a 5m tidal surge.

It was the strongest cyclone since a 1991 storm killed about 143 000 people in the country.

Navy ships scoured coastal areas for hundreds of people reported missing and to clear river channels clogged with sunken vessels to restore normal navigation, officials said.

Helicopters flew sorties to devastated areas, dropping food, drinking water and medicine for the survivors.

The official death toll rose to 1 070 late on Saturday and disaster ministry officials said it was likely to rise further. Private television stations ATN Bangla and Channel-i estimated casualties at 1 300 and 2 000 respectively.

An ATN reporter travelling the coast on Saturday said bodies littered the crumpled rice fields and that mourning relatives were joining ”procession of deaths” as they try to bury them.

Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of Bangladesh’s army-backed interim government, asked officials in disaster areas on Friday to ”ensure bodies are buried quickly” to avoid the spread of disease.

”It will take several days to complete the search and know the actual casualty figure and extent of damage to property,” said food and disaster ministry official Ayub Miah.

The United States navy is reportedly ready to send two amphibious assault ships with helicopters to help in rescue efforts. Bangladesh had yet to receive a formal offer from the US navy, Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain told Reuters. ”If we have, we will consider and take a decision.”

The US navy helped after a devastating storm in 1991. Television footage showed on Saturday people in the cyclone-hit districts going back from shelters to what now looked like heaps of debris.

”Where is my home? Where is my family?” wailed an elderly woman, showing the flattened remains of a house, covered with fallen tree branches.

”Why have I come back? How shall we live?” said another woman in Mathbaria village.

Aids starts pouring in

Aid officials described damage from the storm, which blew away homes and ripped out trees and power lines, as extremely severe. Most of the country plunged into darkness on Friday after the electricity grid was knocked out. Parts of Dhaka, the capital city of 10-million people, were still without power on Saturday.

”Our relief teams have started emergency distribution, with an initial coverage of 100 000 people,” said Vince Edwards, World Vision’s Bangladesh national director. ”However, several areas are inaccessible right now due to fallen trees,” a World Vision statement quoted Edwards as saying on Saturday.

In many areas, 95% of the rice crops awaiting to be harvested in a few weeks have been badly damaged, officials said. Hundreds of shrimp farms were washed away, while vegetables, rice and pulses were also damaged.

”Many people are homeless, crops and livelihoods have been destroyed and this is going to put great pressure on the government, the economy, and the people themselves — particularly as this comes only a few months after floods devastated the northern part of the country,” said Suman SMA Islam, Care’s humanitarian assistance coordinator in Bangladesh.

Germany has allocated $293 000 in emergency relief aid and the European Union has released â,¬1,5-million ($2,1-million) in fast-track aid.

”This is a major tragedy with hundreds already known to have died and hundreds of thousands suffering from this disaster,” said Louis Michel, the European Commissioner responsible for Development and Humanitarian Aid.

In New York, John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, said his office would make available ”several million dollars” in emergency aid.

Missing at sea

Red Crescent officials said about 1 000 fishermen were still unaccounted for in the Bay of Bengal, onboard about 150 boats.

Fishing community leaders in Cox’s Bazar and Barisal said they still expected some of the missing crew to return safely.

In past storms, fishing boats took shelter in the Sundarban mangrove forests, said Shohel Ahmed, a Barisal fisherman.

The Sundarban, home to the endangered Royal Bengal tigers and a World Heritage site, took the brunt of the latest storm and forest officials said many wildlife could have died.

The Category Four-cyclone and the tidal surge it spawned devastated three coastal towns and forced 3,2-million people to evacuate, officials and aid agencies said.

Aid workers said the death toll would have been far higher if not for the good preparations by skilled rescuers and a volunteer army who spread warnings and helped evacuate people. – Reuters