By DPA
Dhaka : Hunger and the risk of epidemics stalked the storm-ravaged Bangladesh coast as the official death toll from last week’s cyclone crossed the 2,500 mark, local officials said Monday.
With bodies emerging from the mud and stench, another 1,000 people were still missing as the government’s disaster management officials said the death toll was likely to rise further.
Rescue teams had yet to reach several devastated zones. Some 3.3 million people have been affected by the cyclone, with 300,000 houses destroyed and twice as many severely damaged.
The armed forces, which were deployed soon after tidal waves receded, said they had covered almost 80 percent of the cyclone-hit landscape.
An army spokesman said they would intensify the distribution of emergency materials in badly-battered fishing regions.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent (Cross) feared the number of deaths from Cyclone Sidr could climb to 10,000.
Red Crescent volunteers struggled Monday to access remote villages cut off by the debris of smashed houses, uprooted trees and damaged bridges.
The armed forces have boosted ground efforts by civilians to bring aid to inaccessible villages exposing an unending scene of death and devastation in the process.
The chairman of the Bangladesh Red Cross Dr Abdur Rob said his organization had appealed to the headquarters in Geneva for emergency supplies of tents, blankets and water purifying tablets.
The Red Cross teams which have been assessing the immediate needs of the cyclone-battered families said 400 million Bangladesh Taka (around $6 million) would be required initially to deal with the aftermath of the disaster.
Oxfam International, a group of non-governmental organizations, meanwhile said there were still villages rescue workers had not been able to access, with tens of thousands of people in the affected areas urgently needing food and shelter.
According to estimates, the cyclone destroyed between 50 and 95 percent of the harvest in the southern coastal region. This would have “immediate and long-term catastrophic effects on the country”, Oxfam said.
Bangladesh already lost some of its harvest during monsoon flooding in July.
According to the government, Sidr destroyed harvests on 30,000 hectares of arable land while partially destroying 850,000 hectares. Some 250,000 livestock and poultry were also killed in the cyclone.
Nearly 1,000 schools and other educational institutions as well as numerous kilometres of roads were destroyed or damaged. Metre-high waves broke dams along a 57-km stretch.
The head of Oxfam in Bangladesh, Heather Blackwell, said there were many villages in remote areas and on islands and sandbanks that had yet to be reached. Oxfam did not know yet what losses had been suffered in these areas. It could be weeks before they knew exactly how bad the cyclone had been, she said.
Blackwell also said the government and aid organizations had much improved their precautionary measures since the last devastating cyclone hit Bangladesh in 1991. This could be seen from the much lower number of victims, she said.
The 1991 disaster killed nearly 140,000 people.
Cyclone Sidr packing winds of hurricane strength pummelled the swampy coastline early Friday leaving tens of thousands homeless.
Winds reaching speeds of 250 km per hour struck down sprawling old trees and coconut orchards, said Samarendru Karmakar, director of the national weather office.
The government has set up some 3,000 makeshift medical centres to fight waterborne diseases among the survivors.
Meanwhile, the disruption of the national grid has plunged the country into darkness hitting factories and transport.
Bangladesh, among the world’s poorest countries, has been repeatedly hit by cyclones. In 1970, some 500,000 people died in the region’s worst cyclone so far.