Editorial
Helplessness before Sandy's full fury
We stand by American people
We express our deepest feeling and sympathy for the hurricane ravaged people of the US states along its eastern coast.
The death toll reaching as high as 40, New York alone is counting its dead at 18. But for timely evacuation in many places the casualties would have been much higher.
No stranger to frequent natural calamities, we Bangladeshis can feel what millions of people dislocated by the superstorm Sandy are going through.
What unprecedented havoc Sandy with its 90 mph winds has wreaked, given the fact that even a tropical storm of 74 mph can release energy equivalent to 10,000 nuclear bombs!
Compounding the rescue work the storm has also been accompanied by a mix of blizzard and fire in places.
Transportation across New York, New Jersey and elsewhere has been crippled, and some eight million people remained without power. Businesses were suspended and the New York Stock Exchange resumed operation after two days' closure, unprecedented since 1888.
The economic loss from the hurricane may exceed $20 billion while the cost of post-storm clean-up operation may come to astronomical proportions.
Little wonder, with the presidential election hardly a week away, incumbent President Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney have suspended polls campaign to concentrate more on post-storm relief activities.
From our own experience in fighting natural calamities through the ages, we greatly come to appreciate the American people who have shown great solidarity and resilience in facing the monster hurricane.
Climatologists should put their heads together to assess if this hurricane has added any new dimension to natural calamities owing to climate change.
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