Hurricane 'Sidr' and Bangladesh

Pirojpur	Body lifted up by 15' tidal surge

Capsized launch in Passur river, Khulna

Mongla scene

Twisted power tower

Uprooted tree near P.G.Hospital, Dhaka

Computers of a demolished school building at Bagerhat

Collecting what is left of the belongings

The Sundarbans

Men and cows swept by tidal surge

Drowned cows, Bagerhat

Dublarchar

Struggling for survival

Waiting for help

In absence of mechanical equipments, service of elephant called for in Barisal district



Waiting for burial, Morelganj, Bagerhat
(pics: from National dailies)

Hurricane ‘Sidr’, with wind speed of over 220 km an hour caused havoc across Bangladesh shoreline at the Khulna-Barisal coast in the evening of Thursday 15th Nov 2007, cutting off all communications and utility services across the country, demolishing houses and crops. The cyclone caused the country's power system to collapse completely for a day, triggering a knock-on effect on piped water supplies, telecommunication and filling station operations. Lack of power disrupted television broadcast, phone lines, cell phones and Internet network.

Media reports say, over 3000 persons are found dead till today, death toll may be as high as 10,000 as said Chairman of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, and hundreds of trees still lying on the roads and fields give a picture of massive damage. It will take weeks to assess the actual death toll, financial loss and days to reach relief to people who are forced to live overnight under the open sky. Red Crescent deployed around 42,000 volunteers in the coastal areas.

The cyclone left its mark of devastation on 133 upazilas, 962 unions, affecting 31.44 lakh population, about 8.87 lakh families killing 2.42 lakh livestock and completely destroyed crops on 23,122 acre land, including 6 lakh metric tons of rice crops. According to the estimate, 2.73 lakh houses were totally flattened. The fierce cyclone totally damaged 58 km roads, partially damaging 1363 km.