The death toll from the fierce cyclone that blasted India on Wednesday has risen to at least 550 people, reports CNN.
India's western coast was in the path of the cyclone, which hit Gujarat state.
As it struck land, its winds reached 65 miles per hour (100 kph). Its power lessened as it moved further inland, where it killed nine people in adjacent Rajasthan state.
The cyclone left thousands homeless. They continue to shelter in relief camps, where soldiers are distributing food.
Besides displacing residents, the storm left behind additional dangers from the risk of disease and the lack of power, reports the Voice of America.
Rescue workers held a mass cremation on Thursday for more than 100 of the storm victims, reports CNN.
The mass cremation was held because bodies were deteriorating quickly.
Rescuers found most of the victims scattered around salt pans.
Most of the victims were poor salt workers who did not heed government warnings to abandon their homes before the cyclone hit, CNN reports.
About 300 salt workers were recovered after they were carried into the Arabian Sea or drowned by a 12 foot (four meter) tidal wave that hit villages near the port of Kandla, 330 miles (530 kilometers) northwest of Bombay.
The workers earn their living by erecting sand walls to trap sea water, and collecting salt for sale after the water evaporates.
Other deaths in Gujarat were caused by lightning, wall collapses or drowning. At least six entire coastal villages in the area were swept away, CNN reports.
Although Gujarat was the hardest-hit area, the cyclone also affected other parts of the country, including the Rajasthan state and the Pakistani city of Karachi.
The cyclone changed direction just before it hit land, leaving residents unprepared and causing more deaths in this surprise movement, reports the Voice of America.
Two years ago, a more destructive cyclone hit India's southeastern Andhra Pradesh state and killed more than 1,000 people.
The number of deaths blamed on the cyclone that hit western India has risen to more than 1,000, the Associated Press reports.
Health workers are trying to prevent cholera and malaria from spreading among survivors in areas affected by the storm. The threat of disease prompted officials to burn corpses in a mass cremation.
About 40 health teams have approached the hardest hit towns, bringing chlorine tablets and other medicines since clean drinking water is not available.
Relief workers have found additional victims in isolated areas that were inaccessible after the storm's damage paralyzed the region's infrastructure.
Thousands of villages are without power and unable to pump water from village wells.
About 7,000 people are still being treated for injuries and at least 300 others are still missing.
The cyclone's winds reached 75 miles per hour (mph) and pushed 20-foot-high waves.
NEW DELHI, India - The official death toll from a cyclone in western India's Gujarat state has reached 1,126, United News of India reported Friday. Since the storm hit land June 9, the toll has been climbing steadily as bodies are pulled from debris or float back to shore after they were swept away by a tidal wave. The news agency, quoting officials at a cyclone control room in Gandhinagar, 470 miles southwest of New Delhi, said the government's list of missing and feared dead stood at 1,754. Aid agencies have said the number of missing is probably many times that. Most of the missing and dead in Gujarat, the state hardest hit by the storm, were salt workers.