Bangladesh:Desperate rescue efforts continued across Bangladesh yesterday to try and reach remote areas hit by a fierce cyclone last week that tore through the southern part of the country killing more than 2,300 people.
The chairman of Bangladesh's Red Crescent Society Mohammad Abdur Rob said the overall death toll from the cyclone could reach 10,000 as grieving survivors and rescuers picked through large swathes of ravaged countryside with their bare hands, seeking survivors.
Aid workers said supplies were inadequate and appealed to the government to make an immediate plea for more international aid to avert a "human disaster". Officials from Bangladesh's military-backed government also expect the death toll to rise as the search continues for thousands of people missing after Cyclone Sidr struck late on Thursday.
"Village after village has been shattered," said Harisprasad Pal, a local official in hard-hit Jhalokati district. "I have never seen such a catastrophe in my 20 years as a government administrator."
Survivors described whole houses being picked up and blown away in the storm. "I have never seen such a terrible scene. It was like hell," said businessman Manik Roy in Jhalokati.
Officials said most of the dead were poor people killed in the tidal surge that washed away flimsily constructed homes, and when strong winds blew down dwellings. Many others drowned or were lost at sea and television channels relayed pictures of row upon row of retrieved bodies.
Survivors stared vacantly over bodies recovered from the rubble of their devastated homes or found in the paddy fields or rivers. "Please give us some clothes to wrap the bodies," a villager begged as he pulled a dead man from a river. Rescue teams fear the outbreak of epidemics of diarrhoea and cholera.
Military helicopters and naval ships have been pressed into the rescue effort to try and reach tens of thousands believed stranded on islands in the Bay of Bengal and in coastal areas.
But rescue helicopter pilots say there were not many places to land as large areas remained under water. A massive effort, backed by the army was also under way to bring in supplies.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society has appealed to the International Red Cross for $6 million for relief and rehabilitation.
Outside aid is being pledged with the US offering an initial grant of $2.1 million. Additionally, the USS Essex and the USS Kearsarge are on the way to Bangladesh to assist in relief and rescue operations, a US official said.
Pope Benedict XVI has also called for "every possible effort" to help Bangladesh's cyclone victims and offered prayers for the dead.