Toxic Insanity

Most of the victims were killed when trees crushed flimsy homes made from bamboo and tin. In Madaripur district between Dhaka and the southwest coast, an AFP reporter saw devastated villages, one after the other. -- PHOTO: AFP

DHAKA - MORE than 600 people were on Friday confirmed dead and one report put the toll at over 1,100 after a powerful cyclone smashed impoverished Bangladesh with huge waves, severe winds and torrential rains.
Tens of thousands were also left homeless when Cyclone Sidr, described as the worst storm in years to hit disaster-prone Bangladesh, crashed into the southwestern coast on Thursday night before sweeping north over the capital Dhaka.

The private UNB news agency, quoting unofficial local sources, said more than 1,100 lives had been lost.

Government official Kazi Mokhlechur Rahman put the confirmed death toll at 612 and climbing with 192 people unaccounted for.

But the full extent of the disaster remained unclear because communications in some of the worst-hit areas were down.

Earlier, a government official said reports were yet to come in from two districts known to have been worst hit - southern Barguna and Jhalokati.

'We are expecting many dead bodies will be found there,' said disaster management official Nahid Sultana.

Wind speeds of 220-240 kilometres an hour were recorded as the storm - visible from space as a huge swirling white mass that moved north from the Bay of Bengal - left a trail of devastation in poor rural areas.

The Category 4 cyclone triggered a 5-metre high tidal surge that devastated three coastal towns, Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalakathi, and forced 3.2 million people to evacuate, officials and aid agencies said.

'The death count is rising fast as we get more information from the affected districts,' a food and disaster ministry official said.

The death toll might rise sharply when search operations end in a half dozen tiny offshore islands inhabited by thousands of fishermen, and coastal areas where telecommunications were cut.

Most of the victims were killed when trees crushed flimsy homes made from bamboo and tin. In Madaripur district between Dhaka and the southwest coast, an AFP reporter saw devastated villages, one after the other.

Local businessman Mollik Tariqur Rahman said that 80 per cent of the homes in his village had been flattened.

'I cannot describe how devastating it was. It was like doomsday, the most frightening five hours of my life. I thought I would never see my family again,' he said.

A navy spokesman said five ships had been dispatched with supplies of food, medicine and relief materials.

Missing fishermen
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva 1,000 fishermen were missing.

'Significant damage is expected. However, information collection on casualty and damage figures is still very much in the early stages,' OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said.

Aid
The United States expressed 'its deepest sympathy' for the victims of the cyclone and offered to join international efforts to provide emergency relief.

The European Commission said it was sending 1.5 million euros (S$3.2 million) in emergency relief aid to the country.

'Preliminary indications are that the most pressing needs will be food, safe drinking water, emergency shelter, clothing, blankets and medicine,' Commission spokesman John Clancy told journalists in Brussels.

The UN's World Food Programme said it was sending 98 metric tonnes of high-energy biscuits, enough for 400,000 people for three days.

'The urgent needs are food, water purification tablets and medicines,' WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said.

Fakhruddin Ahmed, chief of the army-backed interim government, flew to devastated coastal districts on the Bay of Bengal on Friday to see the damage, officials said.

Rescue workers, however, had yet to reach many remote areas, and roads, telephone lines and power supplies were also cut.

'The electricity went off across the entire country,' said Mohammad Iqbal Hossen of Bangladesh's energy ministry.

The storm forced hundreds of thousands of people to spend the night bunkered down in a network of special shelters set up by the government to avoid the mass casualties of previous disasters.

Experts described Sidr as similar in strength to the 1991 storm that triggered a tidal wave, killing an estimated 138,000 people. Another cyclone in 1970 killed up to half a million people.

The head of the Bangladeshi meteorological department, Samarendra Karmakar, said the shelters as well as an evacuation programme should spare the country mass casualties.

'We are expecting less casualties this time because the government took early measures. We alerted people to be evacuated early,' he said.

India
Neighbouring India, which was also bracing for disaster, escaped the worst.

'It's a great relief to us,' said the relief minister in India's eastern state of West Bengal, Mortaza Hossain.

About 100,000 villagers in coastal areas of West Bengal were returning home on Friday despite heavy rain after being evacuated to temporary camps, he said.

The state's finance minister, Asim Dasgupta, said one man was killed and over a thousand mud huts destroyed on the Indian side.

The storm, which reached Dhaka early on Friday, later weakened and crossed the northeastern Sylhet district.

It was expected to progressively lose strength before ending on Saturday just south of the mountain kingdom of Bhutan. -- AFP, REUTERS

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