Coast guard sources and local people of the coast said the hope of finding more floating bodies in the sea is dissipating as the sea fishes would have devoured them. But the relatives of missing fishermen and the local administration are still searching for bodies in the sea. Relatives of the missing ones were still waiting on beaches for their dear ones in different coastal areas including Cox's Bazar and Kuakata.

Navy officer, Lt Commander Firoz Kabir, who has been missing since Tuesday night's storm, could not be traced till yesterday evening. The navy ship also could not be salvaged.

Meanwhile, the met office sources said the weather will stay gloomy today too. The land depression over West Bengal and adjoining Bangladesh remained practically stationary till last night. Drizzle almost all over the country disrupted normal life yesterday also for four consecutive days.

All fishing boats and trawlers in the north bay have been advised to remain close to the coast until further notice.

Different districts including Khulna, Satkhira, Rajshahi, Chandpur, Barisal, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Noakhali, Bagerhat, Cox's Bazar and some parts of Dhaka have been inundated due to rainfall for four consecutive days.

A baby-girl drowned in floodwater at Jugantar Adarsha village in Nijhumdip under Hatiya Upazila on Friday.

Our Cox's Bazar correspondent reports, around five hundred fishermen still remain missing there. The local administration formed a search and rescue team. This correspondent accompanied the team yesterday but it could not work properly due to rough weather and could not recover any body nor could it rescue any fisherman.

Mojibor Rahman Chairman, president of Trawler Owners' Association said the chance of recovering more floating bodies is slim. The association apprehends that fishes would have devoured the floating bodies if there were any.

Coast Guard Commander Badrudozza Chowdhury told BBC last evening that they did not find any body as they had started their rescue operation yesterday.

Our Patuakhali correspondent reports, nine more bodies were recovered from the beaches of Kuakata and Golachipa regions yesterday but none of them were identified. A local administration yesterday recovered a body while a dog was gnawing it.

Over 200 fishermen and 50 boats still remain missing there, the report added.

Several hundred relatives of the missing fishermen are still waiting on Kuakata beach.

Trawler Owners' Association could not send any trawler to the bay for search and rescue operations for its missing trawlers and crew due to a very rough sea, said Nimai, general secretary of the association.

DEBATE OVER RESPONSIBILITY
Meteorologists blamed the unusual character of the violent storm of last Tuesday for the huge damage to life and property.

"The particular storm behaved very unusually by changing its character suddenly, which the meteorologists could not predict. Our record tells us that the wind speed should not have been more than 60 kilometre but the damage says the wind speed was almost double at different points," said Arzumand Habib, deputy director of the met office.

The meteorologists said they sent out bulletins with cautionary signal number three on Tuesday morning to several offices concerned. The Bangladesh Betar authorities also claimed that they broadcasted the weather forecast properly.

"We have broadcasted the weather forecast several times on that day. So the allegation against us of not broadcasting the weather bulletin is not correct," Abdul Aziz, regional director of Bangladesh Betar, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The violent storm killed so far nearly a hundred fishermen while more than a thousand remain missing. Official and local sources said at least 25 boats, 630 trawlers and the navy ship were overturned in the Bay of Bengal by the storm.

However, the authorities claimed that the fishermen might have violated the cautionary signal and went out to the sea for fishing as they can net more fish during rough weather.