Millions of people living in the open since torrential rains washed away homes and rice farms across Bangladesh faced an uncertain future Friday as swelling rivers engulfed more areas of the soggy countryside, according to dpa. Officials said the death toll from the raging floods reached 60 as four more decomposed bodies were raked out of the swirling waters early Friday. Analysts said the country's interim administration was not prepared for the disaster. Measures to repair the damage still had to be finalized, sources said. According to local charities, the death toll would be even higher because rescue workers had still to locate more flood-hit villages. The Disaster Management Office said over half a million people were made homeless in the northern rice-growing hinterlands, but fewer than a quarter of the shelter-seekers could be housed. "Rising rivers have triggered severe flooding across the country disrupting road transport, shutting down schools and suspending train links," said Saiful Hossain of the national flood monitoring centre. Hossain said that if the country's three major rivers - the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna - continued to rise at the same time the flood situation would turn more critical.
