November 19, 2007

Traveling

I will be traveling for the rest of the week and will have limited internet connections. So updates on Bangladesh cyclone will be almost non-existent.

[BDNEWS24.com] The confirmed death toll from the cyclone reached 3,113 by Monday, while 3,322 are injured and 1,063 missing. Two C-130 aircraft of the U.S. Marine Corp arrived in Dhaka on Sunday night with medical supplies. The King of Saudi Arabia has announced a $100 million grant for the victims. Riyadh would also airlift 300 tonnes of food and relief materials.

Check the Daily Star's update on Monday. The statistics of the destruction of Sidr are horrifying:
The total number of affected families stands at 1.05 million, representing more than 4.08 million individuals.

Crops on 29,374 acres of land have been completely destroyed and on 8,55,525 acres have been damaged partially, according to the government assessment.

The number of completely destroyed houses stood at 300,511 yesterday and the number of partially damaged houses was 626,000. Besides, 384,000 trees have been damaged.

Some 792 educational institutions have been completely destroyed and 4,393 were partly damaged. Embankments of about 57 kilometres (km) of length have been damaged, and 58km of road has been destroyed completely while 87,948km of road has been partly damaged.
The main challenge in helping the Bangladesh cyclone victims is to reach to the remotest of areas in Southern Bangladesh. There are hundreds of small floodplain sediment island or chars for which the government has no records. These people may not have been existed in any book to be included in the early warning efforts. Thats why the death toll is rising after 4 days.

This report will shed a light to the needs of these people:



So efforts should be made to dispatch the aids to these remote areas. Bangladesh has only a few civilian helicopters. The military and Air Force helicopters are being used in most of the relief works. I have not yet seen any country providing means of transport in the relief work.

Also read TIME magazine's "How Bangladesh survived the Cyclone"

Via Bangladesh from our view we see how the slum dwellers in capital Dhaka are coping with the damages that the category 3 cyclone brought them.

ACT NOW: How you can help Bangladesh cyclone victims.

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