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Bangladesh Cyclone Appeal

More than 2,100 people have died in Bangladesh after a devastating tropical cyclone ripped through the western coast of the country, and the toll is expected to rise.

As flood waters recede, aid workers say they expect to find scores more bodies when remote villages are finally reached and the counting is done. They face debris-blocked roads, no electricity and almost nonexistent communications.

In addition to the dead, another 15,000 were hurt and 1,000 people were missing, according to a relief official.

The government said Saturday that at least 2,100 bodies had been recovered, but news media, including a United News of Bangladesh report, put the death toll at over 2,500 and will rise. United News said it had reporters deployed across the cyclone region.

Cyclone Sidr, with sustained winds of at least 131 mph (210 kph), made landfall Thursday night along the western coast of Bangladesh near the border with India, unleashing floodwaters.

"We still don't really know the extent of the damage. There are so many areas inaccessible," World Vision spokesman Vince Edwards, who is in the capital Dhaka.




Click image to enlarge - Photos provided by AP

Adding to the tragedy is the loss of rice crops, normally harvested in December, Edwards said.

In Dhaka -- about 200 miles north of the worst-hit region -- there were power outages, massive traffic jams and spotty phone service.

Areas along the coast received the brunt of the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. The worst-hit districts were Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalakathi. Sixty percent to 70 percent of homes in those areas were destroyed, according to local officials. See victims pick up the pieces after the storm.

Nabiha Chowdhury, spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said 150 fishing boats were missing. The fishermen may have been caught in the storm and were unable to return to land, she added.

Chowdhury said about 600,000 people had fled, adding about two million people lived along the coast. She said the latest number of people injured was 15,000 with 1,000 missing.

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Emergency Relief Work for Bangladesh
Please help those devasted men, women and children who have been hit by the tropical cyclone Sidr. Your donation will go towards providing urgent relief work in worst hit areas.