In Galachipa, a fishing village along the coast in Patuakhali
district, Dhalan Mridha and his family had ignored the high cyclone
alert issued by authorities.
"Nothing is going to happen. That was our first thought and we went to
bed. Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our
small hut was swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for
shelter," said Mridha, a 45-year-old farm worker, weeping.
On the way to a shelter, Mridha was separated from his wife, mother
and two children. The next morning he found their bodies stuck in a
battered bush along the coast.
The coast abounded with such grim tales following Tropical Cyclone
Sidr -- the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh in a decade. Many grieving
families buried their loved ones in the same grave because no male
member was available to dig them.
The official death toll from the cyclone that hit Thursday had reached
2,407 on Monday, according to the Disaster Management Ministry.
However, there were fears it could be much higher.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red
Cross, warned the toll could hit 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying
islands.
The society's chairman, Mohammad Abdur Rob, said the estimate came
from the assessments of thousands of volunteers involved in rescue
operations across the battered region.
Helicopters airlifted food to hungry survivors Monday while rescuers
struggled to reach remote areas. The army helicopters carried mostly
high-protein cookies supplied by the World Food Program, said Emamul
Haque, a spokesman for the WFP office in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka,
which is coordinating international relief efforts.
International aid organizations promised initial packages of $25
million during a meeting with Bangladesh agencies Monday, Haque said.
Milenko Kindl
Banja Luka
Banjaluka
NEW ANTI-CYCLONE TECHNOLOGY EXIST !
The new anti-hurricane technology is development. PCT/SK2006/000003 -
A METHOD OF AND A DEVICE FOR THE REDUCTION OF TROPICAL CYCLONES
DESTRUCTIVE FORCE
Antihurricane Technology Fund
http://www.ahtfund.org
PCT - documents
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2006085830
HURRICANE ACTIVE PREVENTION