1,400 Dead in Bangladesh; Toll Rising : Island Leveled by Cyclone, Tidal Wave; Thousands Homeless

A cyclone-driven tidal wave that swept out of the Bay of Bengal has killed at least 1,400 people, left thousands more missing and raked clean one island with a 10-foot wall of water, authorities and relief workers in Bangladesh said Sunday.

Many more people were feared dead in the storm, which began late Saturday. In addition to the thousands of missing, 50,000 families in a single area were said to be homeless. About 15,000 head of cattle were also lost.

Officials at the cyclone disaster center in the secretariat of Bangladesh’s chief martial law administrator raised the confirmed death toll over 1,400 as reports came in of about 1,000 dead at Sudharam, in the southern Noakhali district. Five hundred bodies have been buried there so far.

500 Believed Lost

All the residents who remained on the tiny island of Urirchar--at least 500 people--were assumed to have been swept into the Bay of Bengal, officials in the disaster center said. Many of the estimated 10,000 islanders were evacuated to the mainland before the storm struck.

No contact could be established with the island, 35 miles off the coast from Noakhali and near Sandwip island. Officials said that a pilot who flew over the area reported that the island was swept clean by waves.

Four years ago, people who lost their land to erosion from rivers began settling on the four-mile-square island. Many of the islanders lived on small boats.

A Dhaka journalist who visited Urirchar two years ago told the Associated Press that the settlers probably ignored the cyclone warning for fear of being displaced from newly acquired land. There is no storm shelter, and only one family of four has been reported rescued by search teams.

Tidal Waves Wash Ashore

At Sudharam, tidal waves driven by winds in excess of 100 m.p.h. washed inland, killing perhaps 1,000 people.

Authorities in the capital reported 181 confirmed dead in other areas of Noakhali, 217 on Sandwip island, 24 on Bhola island, 42 from Sonagazi in the district of Feni, 5 on Hatiya island, 3 on Nijhum island, 3 in Patuakhali district and 1 in the major eastern port of Chittagong, all near the mouth of the Ganges River.

Sultan Mahmood, the chief air force vice marshal, said after touring the area that a 60-mile strip from Noakhali to the islands of Pirbakhsh and Char Clark was ravaged. He said he did not see any houses standing except for storm shelters. Residents told him that 6,000 people may be missing on those islands. At least 50,000 families have lost their homes in Noakhali, Mahmood said.

Officials have reported that three-fourths of the houses have been destroyed on the islands of Kutbdia, St. Martins, Moheskhali, Atiya, Sandwip, and Daulatkhan. Cyclone center authorities in Dhaka said 200 to 300 people are reported missing in Sonagazi in the Feni district.

President Hussain Mohammed Ershad flew to the stricken areas and ordered relief and rescue operations for the victims.

“The devastation is beyond description,” the stunned military ruler said. He allocated $400,000 for the relief effort.

Tajul Islam, the president’s press secretary, said air force helicopters and four ships of the Bangladeshi navy have been pressed into rescue service. Army and air force teams are conducting relief operations in southern districts.

In northeastern India, about 50,000 people have been affected by floods caused by the storm, the United News of India reported. Widespread flooding and continuous rain were reported in Tripura and Manipur states, causing millions of dollars of property damage, the agency added. Tripura was cut off by road and phone from the rest of the country.

Bangladesh lies on a low delta region fed by the Ganges and is subject to severe flooding from monsoon rains, cyclones and tidal waves. In November, 1970, a tidal wave killed at least 300,000 people.

The country has a tropical monsoon climate during the summer, with a short dry season. It receives an annual rainfall of about 80 inches during the summer months.

One of the world’s poorest countries, Bangladesh--formerly East Pakistan--was born out of a bloody civil war involving Pakistan and India in 1971. Independence forces were led by Sheik Mujibur Rahman, who became the independent country’s first president. He was assassinated in a coup in 1975.

A predominantly Bengali and Muslim country with a population nearing 100 million, Bangladesh has a per capita income of $117 a year. Three-quarters of its people are illiterate.

A nation of subsistence fishermen and farmers--jute and rice are principal crops--Bangladesh received a kind of negative fame in the 1970s, when then-Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, referring to its desperate poverty and aid-client status, described the country as “an international basket case.”

About the area of Wisconsin, Bangladesh is situated between India and Burma, at the extreme north of the Bay of Bengal.