DHAKA (Reuters)
A severe cyclone has killed more than 580 people in Bangladesh and left thousands injured or missing, triggering an international relief effort on Friday to help the disaster-prone country cope with its latest emergency.
Local officials and Red Crescent workers said 587 deaths had been confirmed. Hundreds more were injured or missing after Cyclone Sidr struck overnight packing winds of 250 kph (155 mph).
The Category 4 cyclone triggered a 15-foot (5-metre) high tidal surge that devastated three coastal towns and forced 3.2 million people to evacuate, officials and aid agencies said.
"The death count is rising fast as we get more information from the affected districts," a food and disaster ministry official said. He put the official death toll at 250.
The death toll might rise sharply when search operations end in a half dozen tiny offshore islands inhabited by thousands of fishermen, and coastal areas where telecommunications were cut.
Dhaka and major cities across the country were plunged into darkness at sunset. Many power plants and most distribution systems were damaged by the cyclone and it could take three more days to restore services, power department officials said. |
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U.N. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva 1,000 fishermen were missing.
"Significant damage is expected. However, information collection on casualty and damage figures is still very much in the early stages," OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said.
The U.N.'s World Food Programme said it was sending 98 metric tonnes of high-energy biscuits, enough for 400,000 people for three days.
"The urgent needs are food, water purification tablets and medicines," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said.
The cyclone, which followed devastating floods in July-September that killed more than 1,000, posed a new challenge to the interim administration, whose main task is to hold free and fair elections before the end of next year.
By early Friday the storm had weakened to a tropical storm.
Storms batter the country every year. A severe cyclone killed half a million people in 1970, while another in 1991 killed 143,000. Many of the country's 140 million people live around low-lying river deltas vulnerable to tidal surges. |
