Cyclone deaths reported at 1,100 in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Military ships and helicopters joined in rescue and relief operations today for survivors of a cyclone that savaged coastal Bangladesh, killing a reported 1,100 people in the deadliest such storm in more than a decade.

Rescuers -- some using elephants -- contended with roads that were washed out or blocked by wind-blown debris to try to get water and food to the needy. Officials said hundreds of thousands of people were affected by flooding from Tropical Cyclone Sidr.

The damage from Sidr will be "extremely severe," said John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, adding that the world body was making millions of dollars in aid available to Bangladesh.

The cyclone's winds -- reaching 150 mph as it roared ashore Thursday night -- wreaked havoc on electricity and telephone lines and knocked out power to millions.

The government today said the death toll was 884. The United News of Bangladesh news agency, which has reporters across the region, said late Friday that the count from each affected district left a death toll of at least 1,100.

Dhaka, the capital city of this poor, desperately crowded nation of 150 million people, remained without power today. The cyclone swept in from the Bay of Bengal and roared across the southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain, high waves and a 4-foot-high storm surge leveling thousands of flimsy huts and destroying crops and fish farms in 15 coastal districts, officials and witnesses said.

Volunteers from international aid agencies, including the U.N. World Food Program, Save the Children and the Federal Way-based Christian aid group World Vision, have joined the relief effort.

Bangladesh is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that cause huge losses. In 1970, between 300,000 and 500,000 people were killed by a cyclone, and dozens of other cyclones have taken more than 60,000 lives since 1960.