Bangladesh floods worsen; fishermen survive storm

A family evacuates a village in West Bengal, India, after monsoon rains and the release of waters from reservoirs claimed more than 1,000 lives

JESSORE, Bangladesh (Reuters) -- Devastating floods in Bangladesh that have killed more than 100 people and affected millions continued to surge on Wednesday, but officials said about 150 fishermen missing in the Bay of Bengal were safe.

Shafiqul Hasan Chowdhury, police superintendent at Cox's Bazar beach resort, said all of the fishermen, missing since a violent storm on Sunday, had returned home alive.

But there was still no word on the fate of 350 other people reported missing earlier this week.

Officials in the worst flood-hit areas in the country's southwest said that while the waters in some areas had begun to slowly subside, levels in other places had continued to rise.

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The situation was particularly grim in Satkhira district where more than 30 villages were swamped after a river dyke collapsed two days ago, leaving local people stranded on their rooftops, local officials said.

Officials said most of the deaths in the 10-day-old floods had been caused by drowning and house collapses, but other people had also died from disease and after being bitten by snakes.

The floods, believed to be the first to hit the region in 50 years, left people unprepared and one official said relief and rescue efforts had been hampered by a lack of boats.

As the crisis deepened on Tuesday, the Bangladesh air force began using its helicopters to fly relief supplies to remote villages. The army and navy have also sent in personnel to help deliver medical care or to rescue people trapped by the rising waters.

Relief workers estimate that more than half a million people living in makeshift shelters were facing shortages of food, drinking water and medicines.

But disaster management officials said the current floods were not as serious as a massive inundation in 1998 that covered three -quarters of the country, including the capital Dhaka, killing around 3,000 people.

"The 1998 and earlier floods did not swamp the southwestern districts, so the current deluge is new to most of the people there," said an official in Jessore, 300 km (188 miles) southwest of Dhaka.

The torrents, caused by rain and an onrush of water from the flood-swept Indian state of West Bengal, have damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) crops, over 1,000 km (625 miles) of roads and 500 schools, according to preliminary estimates.

Government officials said they expected to have more information on possible pledges flood relief assistance later on Wednesday, a day after an appeal was launched for help from local and foreign relief agencies.

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