Cyclone deaths in Bangladesh top 3,100

The death toll from a cyclone that struck the coast of Bangladesh last week has exceeded 3,100, while survivors of the vicious storm wonder when millions of dollars in promised aid will materialize.

Bangladeshi army spokesman Lt.-Col. Main Ullah Chowdhury on Monday pegged the offical number of dead at 3,113 — a jump of almost 1,500 since Saturday. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, said that figure could climb to 10,000 once rescuers reach all of the storm-affected areas.

Azahar Ali is carried by a relative through the rubble on Monday, days after the cyclone hit the area in Patargata, 200 kilometres south of Dhaka.
(Pavel Rahman/Associated Press)

Thousands of others remain stranded in remote areas after Cyclone Sidr tore down power lines and ripped up roads on Thursday with winds that reached 250 km/h as they whipped through the Bay of Bengal.

Reporting from Bangladesh, the CBC's Priya Ramu said the country's armed forces have been deployed to help disaster relief workers move in and out of the damage zones. Tens of thousands of volunteers are scouring through the wreckage, discovering more dead bodies and survivors struggling to find food.

"The aid needed now is at its most basic: shelter, water and food. As that need grows, so too does the criticism, the frustration around the time it is taking for emergency response to actually reach those in need," Ramu said.

Toronto-based Global Medic is sending a group of volunteers to the southern coastal regions that have been hardest hit, said the NGO's manager, Matt Capobianco. It will set up a mobile field clinic to provide storm victims with water purification units, medicine and food, he said.

"The biggest challenge is just the amount of people and the volume you're trying to service," said Capobianco, who will catch a flight to Dhaka, the capital, later Monday and stay in Bangledesh for two weeks.

Canada offers aid

A representative with the aid agency World Vision Bangladesh said he has toured through five of the worst-hit districts. Up to 70 per cent of homes — mostly made of mud and bamboo — have been partially or completely destroyed, while an estimated 300,000 hectares of crops were lost in the storm.

"I've also spoken to several families, those that have lost their homes and also their crops, and I can see their hopelessness. One of the big questions on their mind is how are they going to survive in the coming days," Vince Edwards told CBC News.

The interim government in Bangladesh, a country of 150 million, said it has put aside $5.2 million in aid for reconstructing homes, stressing that relief efforts are reaching those in need.

"We have enough food and water," said Shahidul Islam, the top official in Bagerhat, a district near the town of Barguna. "We are going to overcome the problem."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda on Monday announced up to $3 million in immediate aid relief for Bangladesh.

"The government of Canada has set aside $3 million and will work with our partners on the ground to help the people affected by this terrible natural disaster," Oda said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

The United States has offered $2.1 million in aid, while a spokesman for the UN's World Food Program, which is co-ordinating international relief efforts, said a group of aid organizations promised an initial $25 million on Monday.

The European Union, as well as the governments of the Philippines, Britain, Germany and France, have also promised to provide assistance.

UN expresses solidarity

In a statement, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said several million dollars would be made available through the United Nations' emergency response programs.

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 UN system at this time of crisis," the statement said.

Bangladesh is struck by severe weather and storms every year. The most recent deadly storm was a tornado in 1996 that flattened 80 villages and killed 621 people.

An early warning system is believed to have saved at least 1.5 million coastal villagers who found shelter before the storm. But for those who survived, Ramu said the anticipated economic fallout from the cyclone remains a concern.

"One government official said today that while emergency preparedness paid off this time around, those measures may have saved lives [but] they could not save the livelihoods of millions in this impoverished country."

Ramu said the economic consequences of the storm could severely exacerbate damages caused by summer flooding that killed over 1,000 people and, according to reports, crippled 95 per cent of the rice fields and shrimp farms in some areas.

With files from the Associated Press