Relief efforts intensify
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Relief workers and the armed forces including army, air force and navy intensified efforts Tuesday to reach millions of survivors after the cyclone that killed nearly 3,500 people along the Bay of Bengal, report bdnews24.com/Reuters.
A huge relief operation was under way with the aim of reaching almost all the affected areas.
Bangladesh Army relief and rescue teams have reached 70 per cent of the affected areas, said officers manning a military control room opened after the cyclone Sidr smashed into low-lying coastal areas Thursday last.
"We have reinforced relief efforts by adding more helicopters and cargo planes to fly food, medicine, water and other essential goods to the survivors," said an army official.
Ten MI-17 helicopters and three planes are already in use and they will be joined shortly by two C-130 transport aircraft from the US Marines, he said.
"We will cover the rest of the ground in a day or two," a disaster management official said Tuesday.
But food supplies were still woefully inadequate.
A huge relief operation was under way with the aim of reaching almost all the affected areas.
Bangladesh Army relief and rescue teams have reached 70 per cent of the affected areas, said officers manning a military control room opened after the cyclone Sidr smashed into low-lying coastal areas Thursday last.
"We have reinforced relief efforts by adding more helicopters and cargo planes to fly food, medicine, water and other essential goods to the survivors," said an army official.
Ten MI-17 helicopters and three planes are already in use and they will be joined shortly by two C-130 transport aircraft from the US Marines, he said.
"We will cover the rest of the ground in a day or two," a disaster management official said Tuesday.
But food supplies were still woefully inadequate.