SURVIVORS of a powerful cyclone that devastated Bangladesh and killed more than 2,500 people grieved and buried their loved ones yesterday as they waited for aid to arrive.
Tropical Cyclone Sidr was the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh in a decade.
The official death toll from the cyclone that hit Thursday had reached 2,579 yesterday, according to the Disaster Management Ministry. However, there were fears it could be much higher.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, warned the toll could hit 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying islands.
The society’s chairman, Mohammad Abdur Rob, said the estimate came from the assessments of thousands of volunteers involved in rescue operations across the battered region.
Helicopters airlifted food to hungry survivors yesterday while rescuers struggled to reach remote areas. The army helicopters carried mostly high-protein cookies supplied by the World Food Program (WFP), said Emamul Haque, a spokesman for the WFP office in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, which is coordinating international relief efforts.
International aid organizations promised initial packages of US$25 million during a meeting with Bangladesh agencies yesterday, Haque said.
But relief items such as tents, rice and water have been slow to reach many. Government officials defended the relief efforts and expressed confidence that authorities are up to the task.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that several million dollars were available from the U.N.’s emergency response funds, depending on the need.
He expressed his “profound condolences to the people and government of Bangladesh for the many deaths and the destruction involved, and the full solidarity of the U.N. system at this time of crisis,” the statement said.
The government said it has allocated US$5.2 million in emergency aid for rebuilding houses. Many foreign governments and international groups have also pledged to help.
The Chinese Government has decided to donate US$1 million of emergency assistance to the Bangladesh Government for the relief and rehabilitation activities, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Zheng Qingdian said yesterday. The Red Cross Society of China also announced yesterday it would provide US$50,000 for the victims of Sidr in Bangladesh.
The United States offered US$2.1 million.
Other governments and organizations that pledged aid include the German Government, which offered about US$730,000, the European Union with US$2.2 million, and the British Government with US$5 million.
France pledged some US$730,000, while the Philippines said it would send a medical team.
Every year, storms batter Bangladesh, a country of 150 million, often killing large numbers of people. The most deadly recent storm was a tornado that leveled 80 villages in northern Bangladesh in 1996, killing 621 people.
(SD-Agencies)
