Trackback URL
Download PDF The Cyclone Sidr apparently held the real degree of its destruction in store for the nation until yesterday, four days into the catastrophe, with the government gradually raising the death toll to 2,299 and Red Crescent fearing causalities as high as 10,000.
“We have already identified 2,750 bodies. Based on our experience in the past and reports from the scene, I would suggest the death toll may be as high as 10,000,” said Prof M Abdur Rob, chairman of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, told the press in city yesterday.
The government rescuers could recover 515 more bodies in 24 hours from 1:30am Sunday, with Barguna overtaking Bagerhat on top of the causalities list with 717 people.
Shell-shocked survivors and rescuers yesterday picked through the cyclone ruins in the worst-hit southern districts as thousands of victims awaited relief amid their wrecked homes, crops, livestock and fields. They sobbed in agony, suffered in hunger, thirst and diarrhoea. They buried dear ones and searched in vain for the answer why fate conspired against them.
Reacting to the Red Crescent concern, which deployed around 42,000 volunteers in the coastal areas, Mohammad Aiyub Miah, acting secretary to the food and disaster management ministry said, “It is hard to guess what could be the possible number of causalities. But we can assure that we will instantly update all on the death toll, whatever grave it turned out to be.”
The government expects to prepare an estimate of damage by the end of this week, as the extent of destruction was too severe. “We have been taken aback with the catastrophe in some remote, inaccessible areas. It will take time for us to get an idea of the actual loss there,” Aiyub Miah told The Daily Star last night.
The government hoped to place a detailed report on causalities and financial loss at the meeting with donors, who already pledged around $25 million in aid, next week.
Meanwhile, people of Barguna, where death toll doubled overnight, found no end to their miseries. Staying out under the open sky, thousands of survivors are now begging for a glass of water, forgetting about the inadequate relief and shelters.
“We used to rely on tubewells and ponds for drinking water. All the 16 tubewells in my union parishad went out of order and ponds became reservoirs of salty waters after the tidal surge,” said Sultan Mahmud, chairman of a Noltona union parishad over phone last evening.
Reports on scarcity of relief also reported from different parts of the storm-hit districts. About 30,000 people were affected out of 36,000 residents at Sultan’s union. “We received so far from the government relief of 10 metric tone rice and Tk 10,000 which could be distributed among 2,500 people,” he said.
The disaster management control room updated its rough estimate of losses caused by Sidr that will be a severe blow to the economy, which is already suffering huge losses from back-to-back floods in the middle of this year. The cyclone left its mark of devastation on 133 upazilas, 962 unions, affecting 31.44 lakh population of about 8.87 lakh families. The storm also killed 2.42 lakh livestock and completely destroyed crops on 23,122-acre land including six lakh metric tons of Aman. According to the estimate, 2.73 lakhs houses were totally flattened. Meanwhile, the fierce cyclone also totally damaged 58km roads and partially 1363km.
The shrimp farms at the badly-hit Morolgonj and Sharankhola upazilas in Bagherhat were extensively damaged, with the financial loss should be no less than Tk 500cr.
According to the latest government toll, the cyclone killed 717 in Barguna, 610 in Bagerhat, 330 in Patuakhali, 285 in Pirojpur, 85 in Barisal, 34 in Jhalakathi, 38 in Madaripur, 31 in Bhola, 29 in Gopalganj, 17 in Shariatpur, 16 in Satkhira, 15 in Khulna, 11 in Faridpur, four each in Dhaka, Chandpur, and Munshiganj, and two each in Laxmipur, and Narayanganj, one each in Jessore, Chittagong, Rajbari, Narsingdi, and Narail.
Meanwhile, echoing concern of Red Crescent, different non-government organisations also urged the international community to stand by disaster-hit Bangladeshis. “These people are very poor and have lost everything. Their need will be very high, and we don’t believe the Bangladesh government can help all of them,” said a top man in international relief agency.
The international community also hailed government’s disaster preparedness, which greatly helped reduced causalities as well as losses. However Juliet Parker of Christian Aid cautioned, “These preparedness saved lives but not livelihoods.”
November 19th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
i fell so much pain for sidr and for our country
November 20th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
NEW ANTI-CYCLONE TECHNOLOGY EXIST !
The new anti-hurricane technology is development. PCT/SK2006/000003 - A METHOD OF AND A DEVICE FOR THE REDUCTION OF TROPICAL CYCLONES DESTRUCTIVE FORCE
Antihurricane Technology Fund
http://www.ahtfund.org