"The extent of destruction is unimaginable," Reuters cameraman Rafiqur Rahman reported by telephone from a coastal village.
"In the 7 km (4.5 miles) I trekked this morning, I saw not a single house standing," he said. "Only a few leafless trees and a couple of dogs reminded me it was once a village," he said.
UNICEF said cyclone Sidr had affected 3.2 million people and put 1 million in shelters.
"The people here (in Bangladesh) are highly resilient but it has been a hard year for them," Louis-Georges Arsenault, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh, said.
"... many children are finding themselves in difficult circumstances without food, shelter and safety - they have suffered loss or separation from their parents (following the cyclone)," Arsenault said in a statement.
"I urge the international community to keep Bangladesh high on its priority (list) as the rehabilitation following the devastating cyclone is going to need as much support as possible,"
1,000 MISSING FISHERMEN
World Vision, one of many NGOs working to help the cyclone survivors, said on Monday some 1,000 fishermen were still unaccounted for in the Bay of Bengal.
"All at once, our house was taken away like a toy. We discovered ours on the ground but without its roof and walls," said Rika Halder, a girl of Kandi village in southern Mongla.
The house was made of corrugated iron, she told Rafael Palma of World Vision. "I need to put a roof over the head of my children. But I don't know how I am going to do this," said Nirmal Moitra, 45, another Mongla resident.
"We have seen more bodies floating in the sea," the Daily Independent newspaper quoted fisherman Zakir Hossain as saying. Zakir returned from the Bay alive but brought along two decomposed bodies, the daily said.
"It is apprehended that hundreds, even thousands, might have been swept into the sea and got a watery burial," it added.
Pope Benedict called on Sunday for international aid. Bangladesh appealed to the International Red Cross for $6 million, while the European Union and the United States have pledged millions more.
Two U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships with helicopters, the USS Essex and the USS Kearsarge, were sailing to Bangladesh to help in relief and rescue operations, a U.S. embassy statement said on Sunday.
Helicopters flew sorties to devastated areas, dropping food, drinking water and medicine for the survivors.
"But there are not many places where we can land," said one pilot, as large areas were still under water.
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