More than 3,000 people died from the cyclone that recently hit the shores of Bangladesh, and left millions homeless and hungry. Aid workers are now working fast to reach all survivors.

Cyclone Sidr that hit Bangladesh on November 16 left 3,200 people dead and about a millions others homeless.

Officials fear that as many as 10,000 people may have died in the storm. However, with the electricity and phone lines down and roads blocked with uprooted trees, toppled billboards and other debris, the government acknowledged it was having trouble keeping count of the death toll.

Hundreds of fishing boats in the Bay of Bengal have reportedly failed to return to shore, with around 1,000 fishermen still missing. Agriculture also suffered as crops due for harvesting in December have been destroyed.

The international humanitarian movement Red Crescent estimates that more than five million people were in dire need of disaster assistance—far beyond the capacity of a country that is already one of the poorest in the world.

“We have to move as quickly as possible to get food to the most vulnerable,” the World Food Programme's (WFP) Bangladesh representative, Douglas Broderick, said, adding that, “There are thousands of cyclone-affected vulnerable people including women and children with limited access to food. We will waste no time in reaching them.”

Various countries, international agencies, nongovernment organisations (NGOs), local organisations and the Bangladesh government have pledged relief worth millions of dollars, but only a few of the millions of victims crying for food, water, and medicine could be reached.

At present, aid workers, together with the Bangladesh armed forces, are still struggling to clear roads to get their vehicles through to the worst-hit areas. In some places, elephants had to be pressed into service to clear away big trees.

Bangladesh is low-lying and is prone to natural disasters that leave behind massive trails of death and destruction. In 1970, about half a million people died when a cyclone hit the country, while more than a hundred thousand people died as a result of a cyclonic tidal wave in 1991.

Sources:
“BANGLADESH: Cyclone Leaves Millions Facing Starvation” from Inter Press Service, posted on November 19, 2007, <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40107>.
“Cyclone Sidr kills 1,100 Bangladeshis” from The Independent, posted on November 17, 2007, <http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3169629.ece>.