THE death toll from Cyclone Sidr that devastated the coast south of Bangladesh last week may reach 8,000, government officials warned yesterday.
More than 1,700 people have been confirmed dead but officials and aid workers expect the final toll to be many times higher. “We are expecting that thousands of dead bodies may be found within a few days,” Shekhar Chandra Das, deputy head of the government’s disaster management office, said yesterday.
“We have not been able to collect information about casualties in many remote and impassable places due to the disruption to communications.”
The cyclone generated waves up to 22ft high that surged up to 30 miles inland in some lowlying parts. Aid donations and support teams were pouring into Dhaka, the capital, last night as officials counted the cost in human lives and damage to property and crops.
More than 1.7m houses were swept away, leaving at least 3m people homeless, but 1.5m people left before the cyclone struck and are now living in temporary government shelters.
Yesterday the army sent a six-helicopter team to survey the destruction. They reported countless bodies and cattle floating in the flood water.
Aid workers said the country desperately needed dried food and urgent medical assistance to forestall the spread of disease.
The army said the biggest obstacles to rescue were thousands of trees that were ripped up and strewn across the major roads. Aid will have to be delivered by boat.
Ishtiaque Ahmed, who works for a Bangladeshi aid organisation, said his group was working with Swiss charities to bring assistance to 85,000 families in the southern cities of Barisal and Khulna. “There are at least 1.7m people sleeping under the sky. They have no food or safe water to drink,” he said last night.
Vast areas of farmland are under salt water so it will be several months before farmers can begin working their fields again. The storm struck just days before the harvest.
A ministry press release today said 109 upazilas in 27 districts were affected by the storm, adding that around 27,44,081 people in some 780 unions were living in inhuman conditions as the storm rendered most of them homeless.
T
he press release said cyclone Sidr damaged 2,73,233 houses completely and 6,95,102 partially. Standing crops on some 18,122 acres of land have been swept away while crops on 5,00,358 acres suffered partial damage.
Some 2,42,355 domestic animals and poultry birds perished during the tempest, the sources said.
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) today predicted that the death toll caused by the tropical storm Sidr may rise 10,000.
“According to our past experiences and reports, there is a possibility that the death toll of the severe cyclonic storm will rise over 10,000,” BDRCS Chairman Mohammad Abdur Rob told a press conference at its head office this morning.
army has confirmed 3113 deaths so far; however, there are many bodies floating in rivers and rice patties. Nothing yet from the offshore islands, which is leading me to fear the worst from there
A massive health hazard looms large over the areas badly hit by Sidr, as an acute shortage of drinking water resulting in diarrhoea has started to claim lives.
The first reports of diarrhoeal death came from Mathbaria upazila in Pirojpur, where two children died yesterday.
NGO workers in a number of worst-hit areas in Patuakhali and Barguna have also reported that hundreds are affected by the disease.
Barisal Divisional Health Director Mohammad Abdul Baset told The Daily Star last night: “Diarrhoea outbreak could become acute in two to four days. We assumed it inevitable after such a big disaster that destroyed so many homes and so much of the infrastructure.”
He said water purification tablets are already being distributed and another 20 lakh tablets arrive from Dhaka to Barisal today.
The areas facing the most acute drinking water crisis are in most of the inaccessible areas, where relief agencies have hardly set foot
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