ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RAMPUR, BANGLADESH
SOURCE: Associated Press
It took the tornado less than a half-hour to flatten 80 villages, bury children beneath their school and kill scores with scraps of tin roofs and tree branches transformed into missiles by the 125-mph winds.
Bangladesh has a long and sad history of natural disasters but nobody was prepared for Monday's tornado, which officials say killed at least 443 people and injured more than 32,000.
As the extent of the disaster unfolded Tuesday, the survivors accused the government of failing to provide emergency assistance and local hospitals of turning away victims.
The tornado struck hardest in Tangail district, 45 miles north of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
At least 120 of the dead came from Bashail, a village where the victims included students in a boarding school building that collapsed on top of them, said Irsat Jahan, the local administrator.
Death came in other forms too.
``When the killer storm came, I saw the tin roofs of homes cut into pieces and flying everywhere,'' said Reazuddin Ahmed, 45, a weaver from Rampur.
When the sky darkened and the winds began to howl, Ahmed said, he gathered his wife and three children near a concrete wall along a road near their home and prayed to be spared.
There they watched the tornado toss the village's many wooden and tin-roofed houses and reduce several larger buildings, including a movie house, to rubble.
``It looked like hell had been let loose. It was dust and wind everywhere. We prayed to God: `Save us,''' said Babul Ahmed, a 10-year-old son.
The Ahmeds survived, but at least 55 of their neighbors died. On Tuesday, their bodies were retrieved and lined up for burial in a soccer field near a collapsed school.
Deaths were reported in the nearby villages of Gopalpur, Kalihati, Shafiur, Mirzapur and Ghatail.
Tornadoes are common in the tropical delta of Bangladesh during April, May and June, leading up to the annual monsoon in July.
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB