The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Rescuers, including military personnel, are racing against time to reach tens of thousands of cyclone survivors, who are in urgent need of food, drinking water and shelter in remote areas of the storm battered districts of the southern coast.

The Armed Forces yesterday said military personnel have already reached 90 per cent of the affected areas with relief materials.

However, relief workers and journalists from the affected areas yesterday said they found survivors still looking for their dear ones, while corpses of victims, cattleheads and wild animals were floating on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, the many rivers, canals and other water bodies. Besides, bodies are being recovered from paddy fields and bushes.

The survivors are burying bodies en masse covering with leaves for there are no cloths to wrap corpses, they added.

Meanwhile, Save the Children, an international aid agency, yesterday said that it feared that 15,000 people could have died in the cyclone. Emergency workers said more than three million people had been affected by the storm and many of those who needed help most urgently were in hard-to-reach places.

BRAC, the country’s largest NGO, said standing aman and robi crops to the tune of Tk 2,000 crore have been destroyed by the fury of the Sidr that had hit Thursday evening to 9:00am on Friday. Of the destroyed crops-aman paddy loss was to the tune of Tk 1,500 crore, while robi crop Tk 500 crore.

Our Correspondent reports from Barisal: The deadly cyclone damaged crops of 15.5 lakh acres worth Tk 1,500 crore alone in Barisal division.

Barisal divisional agricultural office sources said cultivation of aman paddy was damaged in 7,98,368 out of 17,95,431 acres of cultivated lands in six districts of Barisal division.

This figure included aman paddy cultivations in 2,64,240 out 3,28,757 acres in Barisal, 2,48,694 out of 4,97,389 acres in Patuakhali, 1,06,629 out of 2,43,048 acres in Barguna, 50,897 out of 1,78,168 acres in Pirojpur, 31,949 out of 1,17,658 acres in Jhalakati and 95,957 out of 4,30,410 acres in Bhola districts.

The sources also said different types of vegetables and winter crops of 7,54,405 acres of land out of a total cultivated land of 19,31,725 acres in Barisal division sustained damages from hurricane Sidr.

Aid officials said they were struggling hard to reach the survivors with relief items, which was very small compared to the needs.

“There are many villages in remote areas, including on sandbank islands, that are yet to be reached,” said a senior official of Oxfam. “We don't know the losses in those regions. It could take weeks before we know exactly how bad this cyclone was.”

Up to 15,000 people were killed and seven million lives left devastated by the cyclone in Bangladesh last week, aid agencies said as the full extent of the disaster was becoming clearer.

Local officials said, in the worst affected districts, 90 per cent of homes and 95 per cent of rice crops and valuable prawn farms were obliterated by the winds at a speed reaching 185 kmph to 250 kmph whipping up 15 to 20 feet tidal surge.

Fallen trees and flooded roads are also seriously impeding the relief efforts to reach stricken coastal villages, with elephants being used in some areas to clear the large debris. Officials described the humanitarian situation in coastal districts like Barguna, 130 miles south of the capital, as the “worst in decades.”

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday visited different parts of the severely devastated Barguna and Patukhali districts. He distributed relief materials to the survivors and pledged all necessary assistance.

The Chief Adviser highly appreciated the bravery of the victims, who survived one of the worst cyclones of the century.

Tapan Chowdhury, Adviser for Food and Disaster Management, described the cyclone as a “national calamity” and urged all to come forward to help the victims.

Relief workers on the ground said supplies were still inadequate and that the Government should make an immediate international aid appeal to avert a humanitarian disaster.

“I have never seen such a catastrophe in my 20 years as a government administrator,” said a senior district official from Barguna, “Village after village have been shattered. Millions of people are living out in the open and relief is reaching to less than one per cent of the people.”

Many of the victims were found dehydrated and in a state of shock. Many of the survivors, who lost most of their family members, said they were afraid that the rest of them would also die of hunger.