MAJHER CHAR, Bangladesh, 19/11/2007 (From AFP) - Soldiers and relief workers raced Monday to get aid to millions left homeless by the cyclone in Bangladesh, where the official death toll has topped 3,100 and is certain to rise. Untold numbers of survivors were in urgent need of food and water in the south, one of the poorest areas of the world, which was battered by a colossal storm Thursday night that swept entire villages away. The emergency-rule government called in the military to help but with roads blocked or simply gone, the relief effort was still struggling four days after disaster struck. Homes, food stocks, crops, livestock and drinking water sources were all washed away by a six-metre (20-foot) tidal wave that smashed into the coast along with Cyclone Sidr. In many places the situation was desperate. "Ninety-five percent of all the 40,000 houses in this sub-district have been washed away," local administrator Salim Khan, told AFP in the coastal town of Patharghata. Dozens of distraught villagers were outside his office pleading to be given food, water and medicines. "People are hungry. Some supplies are going out but it is taking time," he said. With the bloated corpses of people and animals dotting the landscape, and little left in the way of medical treatment, fears of disease were adding to the human misery across the devastated region. The army said most main roads had now been cleared but many survivors told AFP they had still not received help. Officials said the armed forces were working to deliver relief by air, road and sea in conjunction with aid agencies. "There are many places that still have not been reached but today (Monday) we are sending helicopters to 13 different places for the first time," said navy lieutenant commander Mohidul Hassan. Officials fear the death toll could run into many thousands after all the victims in isolated areas have been accounted for. "The death toll has already reached 3,000 confirmed dead," said M. Abdur Rab, chairman of the Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society, the country's largest humanitarian organisation. "It may cross 5,000, but it will remain below 10,000," he said. Along the coast, entire stretches of road were washed away, said an AFP reporter touring the worst-hit areas. Red Cross and Red Crescent workers said they were using their networks of volunteers to distribute dried food and plastic sheeting for temporary shelters, but that many helpers were themselves victims. "Our estimate is that 900,000 families are affected," said Red Cross official Shafiquzzaman Rabbani -- a figure that accounts for around seven million people. Most of the deaths were caused by the tidal wave which engulfed coastal villages, or by flying debris and falling trees that crushed flimsy bamboo and tin homes. On one river island close to the southern coast survivors said all bar half a dozen of the island's 70 children had been washed away in the tidal surge. Abdul Zabbar, a 50-year-old teacher in Barguna district, 200 kilometres (130 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, said survivors might not be able to hold out for long. "There is no food and drinking water. Bodies are still floating in the rivers and paddy fields," he said. The rice harvest -- or four months of food -- had been washed away. Pope Benedict XVI appealed Sunday for international solidarity to aid the Muslim nation, appealing to "help these brothers so sorely tried." The United States announced it was sending two million dollars for relief efforts. Two US navy ships carrying helicopters for medical evacuations were due to arrive offshore within five to seven days. The Philippines said it would dispatch medical teams and several European nations also offered financial assistance.
DHAKA, Nov 15, 2007 (From AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people in the path of a cyclone closing in on Bangladesh and eastern India were evacuated Thursday as forecasters warned the storm could hit land later in the day. Volunteers using microphones urged villagers in south and southeastern Bangladesh to take refuge in the country's network of cyclone shelters. Officials also travelled by speedboat to islands to warn residents to evacuate. "We started evacuating people from vulnerable coastal areas and our volunteers are using microphones asking people to take shelter in cyclone shelters," said Asraf Shameen, administrative chief of southeastern Chittagong district. Tropical Cyclone Sidr, raging over the Bay of Bengal, was moving towards Bangladesh's southern coastal districts bordering India and was likely to hit land later Thursday, said Bazlur Rashid of the Bangladesh weather department. The cyclone, packing ferocious winds and heavy rains, was set to unleash tidal surges of up to six metres in some areas, Rashid said. "The storm is still strong and we expect it to hit in the evening. The most vulnerable districts are Khulna and Barisal," he said. An official weather department bulletin posted at 0300 GMT said the cyclone was about 500 kilometres from Chittagong. Fishing boats have been ordered to remain in port until further notice. Officials said Bangladesh's many coastal islands, whose shifting sand banks are home to some of the country's poorest people, were most at risk from the cyclone. Chittagong airport and sea port were also closed, officials added. In neighbouring India's West Bengal state, which shares a border with Bangladesh, officials have also been evacuating coastal villages and warning of gale force winds from the enormous storm system. "The cyclone has a diametre of about 500 kilometres with a wall of clouds about 200 kilometres tall," Ladu Ram Meena, deputy director of the weather centre for India's eastern region, told AFP. But Indian predictions say the cyclone will make landfall only early Friday, with its first hit on a group of southern Indian islands before striking Bangladesh. "The cyclone is likely to hit Sagar island and coastal villages of West Bengal by Friday morning," Meena said. In 1970, some half a million people died when a cyclone hit Bangladesh, while an estimated 138,000 people died as a result of a cyclonic tidal wave in 1991. The lower death toll in 1991 was attributed to a network of cyclone shelters and a warning system introduced after the 1970 disaster.
