Weathering the storm

Thanks to everyone that has called and emailed to see how we are doing after Cylcone SIDR hit a couple of days ago. Thursday night we knew that it was supposed to make landfall after increasing in strength over the Bay of Bengal. We went to bed to pouring rain (not an uncommon sight here!) and awoke at 3AM to HOWLING winds. We live in a big concrete building so felt very safe. The wind was really blowing and we sort of slept with one eye open the rest of the night. We got up a couple of times to check doors and windows and the power went out about the time SIDR rolled through. Catherine slept through the whole thing. We didn't have power all day Friday and the photos above were taken between putting together puzzles, reading and relaxing around the house. Included here to let everyone know we are fine. Many, many Bangladeshis fared much worse than us. The coastal region was hit the hardest and the death toll is up over 2,000 by this morning's paper estimate. People lost their homes (tin roofs blew away) and their crops (fields were flooded from the tidal surge estimated at 7-8 feet). There are photos in today's paper of floating cow carcasses reminiscent of the destruction cause by the tsunami back in late 2004. Emergency relief from various aid organization is promised and we hope it gets to the people that most need it quickly. Life marches on here in Dhaka city, hundreds of miles from the coast and the hardest hit areas. Today, Sunday, people return to work and things seem to be getting back to normal. One last note: the ship carrying our container with all of our belongings was due to arrive Chittagong (the main port here in Bangladesh) on Thursday! We are not sure when we will see it.