In Cyclone's Wake, Tales of Tragedy and Horror

Rescuers Reach Remote Areas of Bangladesh

BARGUNA, Bangladesh, Nov. 19 -- Azahar Ali huddled with his family, reading from the Koran, as the cyclone roared in. First the power went out, he recalled, then screaming winds blew out the windows and ripped off the roof. The sea rushed in, washing him and his family away.

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The 80-year-old awoke in a rice paddy to find his son, daughter-in-law, three grandchildren and three other relatives dead, among more than 3,100 people killed by Cyclone Sidr. "I have lost everything," he said Monday, 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 and the stories of the survivors began to emerge as rescuers reached areas cut off four days earlier when the storm washed out roads and downed telephone lines.

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 Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic cousin of the Red Cross, warned that the death toll could rise to 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying islands.

In the village of Parulkhel, 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 sheets to lift the body out. Onlookers gathered, and one weeping man identified her as his mother.

Survivors picked through the village's wreckage, looking for anything salvageable in a jumble of splintered wood, bamboo and corrugated metal houses, fallen trees and bloated animal carcasses. A stench filled the air.

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. " 'Nothing is going to happen' -- that was our first thought, and we went to bed," said Dhalan Mridha, a 45-year-old farm worker from the village of Galachipa.

"Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our small hut was swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for shelter," he said. On the way, Mridha was separated from his wife, mother and two children. He found their bodies the next morning, stuck in a battered bush.

Army helicopters flew in high-protein cookies supplied by the World Food Program, said Emamul Haque, a spokesman for the U.N. agency's office in the capital, Dhaka. International groups promised initial aid totaling $25 million during a meeting with Bangladeshi agencies Monday, Haque said.

Tents, water, rice and other relief items have been slow to reach many. In the town of Barguna, long lines of anxious people formed at the market, hoping for word that help was on the way. "We have been waiting here for several hours, but no relief," said Uthan Ching, who left clutching an empty plastic bag.

The United States offered $2.1 million, and two Marine Corps transport planes arrived in Dhaka with medical supplies, said Chowdhury, the army spokesman.

A U.S. military medical team was already in Bangladesh, and two U.S. Navy ships, each carrying at least 20 helicopters and tons of supplies, would be made available if the Bangladesh government requested them, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement. The European Union and various European governments also pledged aid.