Toll Reaches 2,400 in Bangladesh Cyclone

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BARGUNA, Bangladesh — Hungry survivors swarmed below each time a relief helicopter was spotted. But tents, rice, and water were slow to reach hundreds of thousands of victims of Bangladesh’s worst storm in a decade.

Teams from international aid organizations worked with army troops in a massive rescue effort that drew help from around the world yesterday. Rescue workers cleared roads of fallen trees and twisted roofs to reach far-flung villages.

Squatting in a muddy field with his wife, 45-year-old farmer Asad Ali said their 5-year-old daughter, the couple’s only child, had been fatally crushed beneath their toppled thatched hut in Barguna, one of the hardest-hit districts.

He said a helicopter had dropped packages of food but he had received little assistance. Mobs rushed to gather each time a helicopter flew overhead.

“I’ve been here waiting for hours for something to eat,” he said. “What I’ve got so far are a few cookies. Not enough.”

The death toll reached 2,407 today, according to the Disaster Management Ministry. Relief officials warned the figure could jump sharply as rescuers reach more isolated areas.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, said that it believed the toll could hit 10,000 once rescuers reach islands off the coast of the low-lying river delta nation, based on assessments of its volunteers.

“We have seen more bodies floating in the sea,” a fisherman from the country’s southwest said, Zakir Hossain, after reaching shore with two decomposing bodies he and other fishermen had found.

Government officials defended the relief efforts and expressed confidence that authorities are up to the task.

“We have enough food and water,” the top official in Bagerhat, a battered district close to Barguna, Shahidul Islam, said. “We are going to overcome the problem.”


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