BARGUNA, BANGLADESH — Azahar Ali huddled with his family, reading from the Koran, as the cyclone roared in. First the power went out, then screaming winds blew out the windows and ripped off the roof. The sea rushed in, washing him and his family away.
The 80-year-old awoke in a rice paddy to find his son, daughter-in-law, three grandchildren and three other relatives dead, among the more than 3,100 people killed by Cyclone Sidr.
“I have lost everything,” he said Monday while recounting the terror of the worst cyclone in more than a decade to hit this low-lying South Asian nation of 150 million people.
Details of the devastation began to emerge as rescuers reached areas cut off four days earlier. At least 3,113 people were known dead and more than 1,000 were missing, said Lt. Col. Main Ullah Chowdhury, an army spokesman. The Red Crescent Society, the Islamic cousin of the Red Cross, warned the death toll could rise to 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying islands.
Mike Kiernan, spokesman for the charity Save the Children, said the final toll could be between 5,000 and 10,000 deaths, but added that “we won’t know for certain for days or weeks.”
He said hundreds of thousands of people managed to escape physical harm, but many lost their homes and crops.
Kiernan cautioned that a “second wave of death” often follows catastrophes like this: from lack of clean water, food, basic medicines and shelter.
In Parulkhel village, residents and rescuers used bamboo poles to probe flooded fields, looking for submerged bodies. When a woman’s corpse was discovered, workers rushed in with sacks and plastic sheet to lift the body out. A weeping man identified her as his mother.
Survivors said many of the deaths could have been prevented but people failed to heed warnings to move to higher ground as the storm approached Thursday.
