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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (17469)	11/18/2007 8:41:48 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 36921

Quit being an asshole. Impossible task, I know, but try. Cyclone death toll in Bangladesh may top 10,000 By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent Published: 19 November 2007 Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis are in urgent need of food and shelter after the devastating cyclone which tore through parts of the country leaving at least 2,200 confirmed dead. One aid group said the final death toll could top 10,000. 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. "There are many villages in remote areas, including on sandbank islands, that are yet to be reached," said Heather Blackwell of Oxfam. "We don't know the losses in those regions. It could take weeks before we know exactly how bad this cyclone was." The Bangladeshi government has been using military helicopters and naval ships to lead a huge rescue operation involving thousands of troops since Cyclone Sidr, the worst to hit the country for more than a decade, struck on Thursday. Selina Shahid of the government's Ministry of Food and Disaster Management said the official death toll had now risen to 2,206. But this figure could rise significantly when information comes in from the country's more remote regions. A report in Dhaka's Sangbad newspaper estimated that the death toll already stood at more than 4,000, based on reports from its correspondents in affected areas. And the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, warned the toll could rise to 10,000 when rescuers reach outlying islands and assess losses there. The 150mph winds of Cyclone Sidr and the ensuing five-metre sea surge destroyed tens of thousands of homes and forced 1.5million people into emergency shelters. It also ruined large areas of crops – including an estimated 600,000 tons of rice – just before the harvest season. Hundreds of shrimp farms were washed away, and vegetables and pulses were also damaged. In coastal areas, witnesses spoke of sea ferries being flung ashore like toys. "We have seen more bodies floating in the sea," Zakir Hossain, a fisherman from the country's south-west told the Associated Press after reaching shore with two bodies that he and other fishermen had found. The United Nations said a government early warning system had helped to save many lives but could not prevent the damage to property. Some fishermen complained, however, that warnings given by the meteorological office had been confusing, and that as a result many at sea were unsure what to make of them. Unlike the international Tropical Storm Tracker which uses a five-point system, Bangladesh uses a 10-point system in which the point score rises according to the strength of the storm. Fishermen said meteorologists had raised the warning over Sidr from 4 to 9 in a matter of hours and had there been a more gradual increase, they would have been more time to prepare. Instead, when the warning level was raised, Chittagong Port ordered all vessels to leave their berths and move to outer anchorages. "We were put in a mad race to get the ships out of the jetties," said Mohammad Zulfiqar, captain of the merchant ship Banga Bijoy. A number of countries have already promised to help. The US said it was providing $2.1m (£1m) in initial emergency relief while two ships, USS Essex and USS Kearsage, were en route to Bangladesh to help. The US said 35 tons of emergency equipment such as plastic sheeting and hygiene kits was being flown in and the EU has dispatched ¿1.5m (£1m) in relief aid. Aid workers urged the international community to continue and step up its efforts. "Bangladesh had to endure repeated natural disasters this year, the people here are highly resilient but it has been a hard year for them," said Louis-Georges Arsenault of Unicef. "As the estimated deaths caused by the cyclone is rising by the hour, many children are finding themselves without food, shelter and safety. They have suffered loss or separation from their parents." In the badly hit district of Barguna, one farmer told reporters that his only child, a five-year-old girl, had been crushed to death when their thatched hut was toppled by the storm. "I've been here waiting for hours for something to eat," said Asad Ali, who said he had received a small packet of food from a helicopter drop. "What I've got so far are a few cookies. Not enough." The storm is the worst to hit Bangladesh since 1991 when a similar cyclone killed more than 143,000 people. In 1970, more than 500,000 people were killed. news.independent.co.uk