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Cyclone death toll put at 1,070

DHAKA: The unofficial death toll in the super cyclone that has ripped through southern Bangladesh coast on Thursday and Friday has risen to nearly 2,000 as the Army helicopters and ships tried to reach survivors in the battered islands.

The official death toll however was 1,070. Some sources hoped that the figure might not be as high as the 1991 mega cyclone that had killed 1,40,00 persons because of the cautionary measures.

Contacted by this correspondent, many rescuers and survivors said they feared the toll might hit thousands as the harrowing tales of death and destruction started unfolding from remote offshore islands.

Meanwhile, two U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships are on their way to Bangladesh.

The USS Essex and USS Kearsarge, each carrying helicopters and hovercraft equipped with hospital facilities, have been dispatched pending a formal request for help from the Bangladesh authorities, said Major David Griesmer, spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, according to a Bloomberg.com report. He said more ships might be made available once Bangladeshi officials know what they need.

The World Food Program is also rushing food and the U.N. is prepared to make several million dollars available to the government from its emergency relief fund. The European Union released 1.5 million euros ($2.2 million) in relief aid.

U.N. Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Dhaka Renata Lok Dessallien has praised the government’s cyclone preparedness programmes and said the U.N. was assessing the damages to come up with appropriate relief supports. She expressed the U.N.’s “deep condolences” over the loss of life and property and said assessment teams were now in the field to calculate the amount of relief that would be required.

“Damage will be extremely severe,” John Holmes, U.N.’s coordinator of emergency relief, told reporters in New York. “The entire country has been affected. The main needs will be food, shelter and health care.”

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