Death toll may cross 1,000; all communications, utility services snapped; thousands missing; houses, crops, trees destroyed; lakhs homeless
Syed Ashfaqul Haque and Julfikar Ali Manik

Bangladesh dated with a nightmare as cyclone Sidr ripped through the southwestern coast late Thursday, killing over 700 people and demolishing houses, crops, vegetables and trees alike along its trail of devastation over an area of thousands of square kilometers.
Packing winds over 220km an hour, the fierce tropical storm roared across the shoreline after it hit landfall at the Khulna-Barisal coast at 7:30pm Thursday, cutting off all communications and utility services across the country.
βI’ve never seen anything like this in my 47 years life,β Khalilur Rahman, a government official in Patuakhali, told The Daily Star over telephone last night. βIt was a panic beyond description. People found no way but to keep on screaming as long as the cyclone ran rampage here.β
One of the fiercest cyclones in the history of the land, the Sidr rode
on wailing winds, driving rains and tidal surges to wreak havoc for over 14 hours before moving to Asam and Tripura through the Sylhet border, turning into a well-marked low yesterday. (more…)