DHAKA, 17 April 2004 — The air over the tornado-hit villages in northern Netrakona and Haluaghat became heavy with the smell of decaying corpses as the death toll from Wednesday’s severe tornado rose to 74 yesterday with new death and recovery of bodies.
Authorities sent food and emergency supplies. Survivors buried the dead and attended to the injured, many lying in the open.
In several villages, mass funeral prayers were held for the victims.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia visited the injured in hospital and devastated families in storm-hit villages yesterday.
She assured them help would be given where needed. “The government, as ever, will remain beside you at this time of your extreme tragedy and will help you stand on your feet again,” the prime minister said.
Opposition leader Hasina Wajed also visited some affected areas yesterday.
“We have known to live with disasters and face them courageously. Let us stand united, face the latest havoc and turn our sorrows into strength,” Hasina said.
A spokesman for the disaster management control room in Dhaka said yesterday relief operations were under way in the affected areas. “Besides cash and dry food, medical help is being provided by government agencies,” the spokesman said, adding that his office was still awaiting a comprehensive report on the tragedy.
Twisted tin and uprooted trees littered the areas, while villagers wailed in mourning outside their leveled homes as the dead were slowly buried, a local reporter said.
“Dead fish pulled out of the ponds added a foul smell in some areas,” he said.
“Village after village is lying in ruins. People are still in trauma. Only the brave are trying to rebuild their lives,” said Prasanta Kumar Das, a local official in Netrokona, a town in the north near areas that bore the brunt of the storm on Wednesday night.
The death toll was likely to rise further as many of about 2,000 people injured in the storm were still in critical condition, officials and witnesses said.
The army has provided tents and medical aid. Hospitals were crammed with hundreds of people seeking treatment for injuries caused by flying debris.
Many were hit by corrugated tin ripped off roofs; others broke legs or hands or were found half buried in swampy rice fields, witnesses said.
“We are facing an uphill battle trying to reach all the victims and getting aid to them. There is a lot of work ahead of us,” Nurul Islam, an aid worker, said from Netrokona.
Officials supervising rescue and relief efforts said the scale of destruction suggested the wind speed could have been more than 250 kph (150 mph) and the Dhaka meteorology office said the storm was probably a tornado.
Storms and tornadoes are common in densely populated Bangladesh in the hot season, sometimes killing hundreds of people. The bodies, mostly young children, were found buried under the debris as fire brigade rescue teams cleared uprooted trees and electric poles to reach the remote Kanchanpur village, which was devastated by the twister.
The death toll rose from 57 to 74 overnight as more stricken remote villages were made accessible by police, paramilitary and civilian volunteers who have been working frantically to remove the debris.
By early yesterday, crowded local hospitals were running out of blood and medicine as many of the 1,000 injured needed emergency surgical operations. About 50 people remain missing.
