Roundup:Bangladesh steps up relief efforts in cyclone Roanu-hit areas

Bangladesh has stepped up relief efforts after Cyclone Roanu, packing winds of up to 88 km an hour, struck the coast of the country on Saturday which killing dozens of people.

Bangladesh strengthens relief efforts as hundreds of thousans of people still remained marooned by floodwaters or living in cyclone shelters.

The cyclone Roanu left a trail of destruction in hundreds of villages in about 18 Bangladesh districts, destroying hundreds of mud-walled and tin-roofed houses, felling trees and uprooting electricity poles.

Initial reports said the cylone, bringing hail and heavy rain, also damaged rice and other crops.

Hundreds of people were injured during the cyclone by flying debris.

As the grim pictures of death and destructions from the cyclone Roanu-hit southern and southeastern Bangladesh continued to emerge with official count of 24 deaths so far, rescuers have been making desperate efforts to distribute relief materials to victims in remote places.

Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said they have continued their rescue and relief operations in affected remote areas in the coastal region in close coordination with the local administration.

He said more police and fire brigade personnel have joined volunteers offering food and medicine.

He said around 55,000 volunteers alongside thousands of local government and non-government officials are relentlessly working to help the victims.

He said a high-powered inter-ministerial committee has been formed to assess economic losses caused by the cyclone.

The committee has been asked to submit its report next week, he added.

Chittagong administration said the storm damaged crops, fishes and livestock worth 1.5 billion taka, affecting 250,000 people.

Sources said most of the cyclone victims were washed away by storm surge. And as many as 12 people died in Chittagong district, some 242 km southeast of dhaka.

The fragile dams were reportedly 6.5 metres high but the waves flowed up to 7.5 metres during the storm.

Bangladesh ordered evachation of 2.1 million people ahead of the storm.

Tornado and cyclones, killing hundreds of people every year, are common occurrences in this calamity-prone South Asian country of about 160 million people whose per capital income is still less than 2,000 U.S. dollars.

Weather experts say more natural disasters could lash the country, beset by floods and storms, ahead of the monsoon which begins around mid-June.

Super cyclone Aila swept across southern Bangladesh on May 25, 2009. It caused widespread damage and affected around 3 million people, leaving at least 179 dead.

Cyclone Aila was the biggest natural calamity in the South Asian delta country after the powerful cyclone Sidr hit the country's southwestern coastal belt on Nov. 15, 2007, leaving more than 4,000 people dead or missing. Endit