A major earthquake of 7.5 on the Richter scale might kill about 88,000 people and demolish 72,000 buildings and damage 86,000 others in the capital city. Such devastation in the port city of Chittagong could be more catastrophic claiming the lives of nearly 95,000 people and razing to the ground 142,000 buildings, reports BSS.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina forewarned that earthquake could strike the capital city as the groundwater table here is going down 2-3 meters gradually due to massive withdrawal of the water.
Some 78,323 buildings will be destroyed completely if a 6-magnitude earthquake shakes Dhaka, causing havoc throughout the densely populated capital city, according to a government study. In case of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake from Madhupur Fault, the study says, some 72,316 buildings will be damaged totally while 53,166 partially.
Precious water, food and early glimmers of hope began reaching parched and hungry earthquake survivors Saturday on the streets of this shattered city, where despair at times turned into a frenzy among the ruins. "People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy," said accountant Henry Ounche, in a crowd of hundreds who fought one another as US military helicopters clattered overhead carrying aid.
Tensions rose among desperate Haitians awaiting international aid and food that began to trickle in three days after an earthquake that Haitian authorities say killed 200,000 people. Haiti's shell-shocked government gave the United States control over its main airport to bring order to aid flights from around the world and speed relief to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Bangladesh will send by Monday a 30-member medical team, comprising 20 doctors and 10 health technicians, to earthquake-hit Haiti.
The United Nations said Friday about a third of the buildings in Haiti's capital have been damaged or destroyed and appealed for more than $560 million to help three million people badly affected by the earthquake.
Frantic Haitians awaiting a global rescue effort clawed through the ruins of their capital seeking survivors from an earthquake that left streets strewn with corpses and a death toll that may top 100,000. Injured and shocked survivors steeled themselves Thursday for a second night on streets and sidewalks littered with the dead from Haiti's worst earthquake in more than a century.
Turning pickup trucks into ambulances and doors into stretchers, Haitians were frantically struggling to save those injured in this week's earthquake as desperately needed aid from around the world began arriving Thursday.
The six officials of Bangladesh Police working at the UN peacekeeping mission in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince are safe, a senior police officer said on Thursday. Additional Inspector General of Police (AIGP-Media) Nazrul Islam told The Daily Star that the officials, who could not be contacted after Wednesday's earthquake, sent e-mails to the Police headquarters informing that they were unhurt.
