Majher Char, Bangladesh - With no chance of a place to shelter on his small island, a desperate Zabbar Mia tied his two young cousins to a palm tree as cyclone Sidr roared overhead.
His quick thinking without doubt saved the lives of Riaz, 13, and Sumon, five, who were among only a handful of children on Majher Char to survive the devastating storm.
Around 70 youngsters lived here until Thursday when the cyclone swept in from the Bay of Bengal, packing ferocious winds and a six-metre tidal wave.
The rest are either dead or missing, villagers said, adding that despite Bangladesh's acclaimed cyclone alert system, they received no warning of the looming danger.
"There are hardly any children left alive on this island. These two children are lucky to survive," said heartbroken father Mohammad Mainuddin, who lost his wife, two sons and two cousins in the disaster.
One son's body was found hanging from a tree. "The other is still missing. Probably, he was washed away into the sea," he added.
Sobhan Dafadar, 70, wept as he told AFP he had never seen anything like the devastation caused by Sidr - despite living through both the 1970 cyclone disaster in which half a million people perished and the cyclonic tidal wave of 1991 that killed 138 000.
"I have never seen such carnage," he told AFP, explaining that he was now alone, having lost every member of his family except a son who works in capital Dhaka.
"It was so quick. It took just 30 minutes and everything was gone," he said.
Of about 500 people who lived on the island, up to 100 were dead or missing.
Located close to the mouth of the Bishkhali river, Majher Char or Majher island is a bleak place to live.
Hundreds of chars - the constantly shifting sand and silt landmasses found in the middle of Bangladesh's many rivers - are home to an estimated seven million people.
Char dwellers are the poorest of the poor who are unable to afford to live anywhere else. Home is a flimsy hut built from bamboo and tin.
The islands have no schools, no sanitation, no work and no access to healthcare.
Worse still, they bear the brunt of the many floods and cyclones that affect this impoverished and disaster-prone country.
Residents of Majher Char - where most of the men eke out a meagre and dangerous living as fishermen in the Bay of Bengal - said they were taken by surprise by Sidr.
"We miscalculated the wind. Usually when the cyclones come the wind comes from the west but this time it came suddenly from the southeast. Everyone died unless they were in a tree or tied to one," said Mia.
With no emergency bunker they feared they would all be wiped out.
"We climbed into the trees and some of us tied ourselves to the trees to try to survive," said Bakul Begum, 50, who lost her three granddaughters and a daughter-in-law.
"We were just waiting to die," she said, adding that they had asked the authorities for a cyclone shelter to be built on the island, 184 kilometres south of Dhaka.
"No one heeded our call so when the cyclone came we threw ourselves at the mercy of Allah," said Zillur Rahman, 30, whose two cousins died.
For now, villagers are just trying to survive until help reaches them.
All the island's homes have been obliterated. There has been no food since last week and the only well has been contaminated by saline water.
The sole mud road on the island was also churned up by the cyclone and is now impassable.
An AFP correspondent managed to reach the island after three days of travel from the Dhaka -- by car, motorbike, rickshaw, on foot and finally by boat.