1,100 reported killed in Bangladesh storm</p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> DHAKA, Bangladesh - A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh's coast with winds up to 155 mph has killed at least 1,100 people with hundreds more unaccounted for, officials and news reports said Friday.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">The United News of Bangladesh — which has reporters deployed across the devastated region — reported the death toll at 1,100 after early tallying 425 dead.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">The disaster triggered an international relief effort to help the army-backed interim government cope with helping victims.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">Tropical Cyclone Sidr roared across the country's southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">"There has been lot of damage to houses made of mud and bamboo and about 60 to 80 percent of the trees have been uprooted" in coastal areas, said Vince Edwards, the Bangladesh director of the U.S.-based Christian aid group World Vision.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">Edwards said debris from the storm has blocked roads and rivers, making it difficult to reach all the areas that had been hit.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">Thousands of huts flattened Storm surges nearly 4 feet high inundated low-lying areas and some offshore islands in the 15 coastal districts in the cyclone’s path. Communications with remote forest areas and offshore islands were temporarily lost.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">Torrential rain late Thursday and early Friday flooded some streets in the capital, Dhaka, while strong winds sent billboards flying through the air.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">In the coastal districts of Barguna, Bagerhat, Barisal and Bhola, residents said the storm flattened thousands of flimsy straw and mud huts, flooded low-lying areas, destroyed crops and fish farms, uprooted trees, electric and telephone poles. Road, rail and river transport also suffered.</p> <p class="textBodyBlack">By early Friday, the cyclone had weakened into a tropical storm and was moving across the country to the northeast. While skies remained overcast, wind speed had fallen to 37 mph.</p> </div></p>
<font size="-1" face="Arial"><font face="Arial">3000+ dead. 280,000+ displaced. Mother nature sure is a bitch!</font></font></p> <font size="-1" face="Arial"><font face="Arial">I've added some links for relief funds for anyone that would like to donate:</font></font></p> <font size="-1" face="Arial"><font face="Arial"><a href="http://www.worldvision.org/Worldvision/eappeal.nsf/egift_cyclone_relief_bgh?OpenForm&campaign=11365552&cmp=KNC-11365552" target="_blank">http://www.worldvision.org/Worldvision/eap...mp=KNC-11365552</font></font></a></p> <font size="-1" face="Arial"><font face="Arial">www.directrelief.org/EmergencyResponse/2007/CycloneSidrBangladesh/CycloneSidrBangladesh.aspx</font></font></p> </p> </p>
There's been two major natural disasters in the last few months. This one and the flood in Mexico (over 2 Million displaced).</p>