t is a disaster, a huge disaster. The death toll cannot be calculated precisely, though based on information in circulation the dead may be 10,000, as indicated yesterday by the Red Crescent Society, but could soon even reach up to 20-30,000”, said Father Attilio Boscato, a Xaverian missionary for years in Bangladesh, speaking this morning in regard to the situation in the south-western part of the nation, worst-hit by cyclone Sidr between last Thursday and Friday.
“The Xaverian Missionaries in the area have confirmed an extremely critical situation. The cyclone destroyed thousands of homes, poor makeshift huts swept away by the fury of the storm. Crops were entirely destroyed and thousands of cattle perished”, continued the missionary.
The devastation throughout the coastal regions of Bangladesh is clearly indicated in the still preliminary estimates released last night by the Information centre of the Civil Defence agency of Dhaka: with the over 2,000 “confirmed” dead, some “887,310 families were affected for a total of 3-million 144,846 people. An estimated 889,005 homes were damaged, 273,000 completely destroyed and 615,000 partially.
Some 761,361 acres of cropland (over 341,000 hectares) was damaged, while 345,019 trees lost”. Father Boscato underlined that the toll of the cyclone could have been much worse if it had hit the Bengali coasts just a few hours earlier, at high tide.
The Xaverian Missionaries in the area have confirmed an extremely critical situation. The cyclone destroyed thousands of homes, poor makeshift huts swept away by the fury of the storm. Crops were entirely destroyed and thousands of cattle perished
“If the cyclone had made landfall just six hours earlier, during the normal high tide, a wave of up to 6-8 metres would have pounded onto the coast, instead of that of one and a half metres that caused the current damages”, explained the missionary. “Now the main problem is drinking water and hygienic material to avoid an epidemic outbreak”, concluded the Xaverian, adding that access remains difficult in the worst hit areas, “where amid the maze of channels and canals rescuers may never reach certain zones”.
With the slow resumption of communications, humanitarian agencies, working alongside the army and government in confronting the emergency, are beginning to have a clearer picture of the needs of the survivors. “The situation is very difficult, there is need for food, water and other basic necessities, and especially tents and plastic sheeting”, said to MISNA William Pintu, coordinator of Caritas Bangladesh, contacted in Dhaka.
“The people spent another night out in the open. It is urgent to provide them with shelter. There is an extreme need also for water, given that the surge caused by the cyclone rendered many water sources of the various communities unusable”, explained Pintu. Caritas Bangladesh director Alo Benedict has been in the disaster areas since the weekend to coordinate the distribution of food and basic necessities.
(From MISNA)