BANGLADESH:Rescuers struggled yesterday to reach isolated areas along Bangladesh's devastated coast to give aid to millions of survivors, four days after Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people.
"The tragedy unfolds as we walk through one after another devastated village," said relief worker Mohammad Selim in Bagerhat, one of the worst-hit areas. "Often it looks like we are in a valley of death."
The confirmed death toll from the cyclone reached 3,113, while 3,322 were injured and 1,063 missing, Lieut Col Main Ullah Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka, but officials in affected areas say the official death toll is far below the real numbers. Aid agencies say it could rise beyond 10,000. Lieut Col Chowdhury said two US marine corps C-130 aircraft arrived in Dhaka on Sunday with medical supplies.
"We are trying to reach the affected areas on the vast coastline as soon as possible; then we will know how many people have died," a government official said.
While it would take several days to determine the number of dead and missing, about 3 million survivors who were evacuated from the low-lying coast or whose homes and villages were destroyed would need support, the government said.
Aid workers fear that inadequate supplies of food, drinking water and medicine could lead to outbreaks of disease.
"Food, shelter and medicine are badly needed for the survivors," said Renata Lok Dessallien, the UN's resident representative in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, grieving families begged for clothes to wrap around the bodies of dead relatives for burial. In some areas, they put corpses in mass graves. Reporters said bodies were being discovered hourly in rivers and paddy fields and under debris.
The head of the army-backed interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, flew to devastated areas yesterday to reassure victims that his administration would provide enough aid. In Patuakhali, a badly damaged district, Mr Ahmed said: "Your courage in facing the disasters like cyclones and floods gives us strength and reinforces confidence in our ability to do the best we can."
The cyclone smashed into the coast of southern Bangladesh on Thursday with 250km/h winds and a five-metre tidal surge.
Military ships and helicopters were trying to reach thousands of people believed to be stranded on islands in the Bay of Bengal and in coastal areas still cut off after the storm.
The UN's World Food Programme and Bangladesh air force helicopters have begun dropping high-energy biscuits to people stranded in inaccessible areas.
World Vision, one of many non-governmental groups working to help survivors, said yesterday about 1,000 fishermen were still unaccounted for. "Many of us climbed up in trees in the Sundarban forest, but I fell down when I saw a tiger below," said a fisherman on Dublarchar island.
"The waves then swept me further into the mangrove and I found myself alive when the cyclone was over."
In Britain, the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children have launched emergency appeals.