Powerful Cyclone Claims 3,200 Lives in Bangladesh

Packing fierce winds of 190 kilometers per hour (118 mph) that gusted to 240 kph, Sidr slammed into the coast of Bangladesh early Friday. Classed as a category 4 cyclone, it is the deadliest storm to hit the nation in a decade.

Although the storm has now passed, the death toll is predicted to climb as the bodies of human beings and cattle are still being found floating in the sea and rivers.

Survivors of Cyclone Sidr were left with only the clothes on their backs. (Photo courtesy WFP)

The storm damaged thousands of homes, uprooted trees and destroyed crop lands and vegetable fields. The affected districts are still without power. The collapse of the telecommunication system as well as blocked and washed out roads are hampering rescue operations and relief distribution.

Volunteers are struggling to reach the affected areas where survivors are trapped under fallen trees and iron roofs and to collect decomposing bodies.

Hundreds of thousands of people have had to evacuate their home villages and towns and now depend on aid for basic necessities. These survivors are in need of food, safe drinking water, water purification tablets and medicine. Many thousands of tons of crops were damaged and destroyed, adding to the food crisis.

In a move credited with easing the impact of the storm, the government activated disaster preparedness measures before the cyclone made landfall, evacuating some 3.2 million people to safer ground along the coast in 15 districts.

In addition, relief and rescue items such as dry foods, medicines, tents and cooking supplies were stockpiled in advance by the government and byrelief agencies.

Government sources said 3,000 army troops have reached the affected areas and started relief and rescue operations. Helicopters and aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force dropped emergency relief supplies in inaccessible locations along the coast. At least 30 tonnes of food have been distributed to date.

About 40,000 Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteers were mobilized to help alert and evacuate hundreds of thousands of panicked people to shelters as the cyclone approached, and now volunteers are helping to distribute relief items, provide first aid and help with search and rescue.

"The work that the Red Cross Red Crescent, the government and other humanitarian organizations have done to have resources in place, and to mobilize effective early warning systems and cyclone shelters means that the casualties are lower than we feared," said Christine South, the International Federation’s emergency response coordinator for Asia Pacific. "But this doesn’t mean the devastation is not on a very large scale."

"Our estimate is that 900,000 families are affected," Red Cross official Shafiquzzaman Rabbani told AFP, a number that translates into some seven million people.

On Sunday, a navy team rescued 110 fishermen from the sea on Sunday and took them aboard military ships and choppers. Immediately after the storm, 150 fishing trawlers and their crews were unaccounted for, as they failed to return to port before the storm hit.

People do their best to rest amidst the mud and wreckage. (Photo courtesy WFP)

President Iajuddin Ahmed distributed relief supplies to survivors at a secondary school field on Sunday.

The United Nations World Food Programme, WFP, has already distributed 20 metric tons of high energy biscuits to 100,000 flood victims in two districts.

On Saturday, WFP convoys set off for seven other districts, carrying a further 78 metric tons of biscuits - enough to feed 300,000 people.

Working with the government, WFP plans to use airlifts to reach regions currently inaccessible by road.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced his mounting concern today at the trail of devastation and increasing death toll left by Cyclone Sidr and he stressed that the United Nations stands ready to do all it can to help in the relief effort.

On Friday, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said the UN would make available several millions of dollars from its Central Emergency Response Fund, which was established to expedite aid operations following disasters.

The UN Children's Fund is "on the ground helping the affected population with water, dry food and essential medicines," said UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh Louis-Georges Arsenault. "We are also moving on in getting family kits to people with essential items to help them put their life back together."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.