Dhaka, Oct. 25 (BNA) A cyclone hit the coast of Bangladesh on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, destroying homes, uprooting trees and disrupting roads, electricity and communications, officials said.
Reuters reported that mass evacuations before Cyclone Sitrang made landfall on the west coast helped save lives, but the full extent of casualties and damage will not be known until communications are fully restored.
“It was horrific, it seemed like the sea was coming to take us,” Mizanur Rahman, a resident of Bhola district, told Reuters after restoring communications in his neighborhood.
“We had a sleepless night, all we could do was pray.”
The cyclone blasted off from the Bay of Bengal with winds of up to 88 km/h (55 mph) and a gusty gust of around 3 meters (10 ft) inundating low-lying coastal areas.
Officials said power and telephone lines were largely cut and coastal areas were plunged into darkness.
Most of the dead were crushed by fallen trees.
No major damage was reported in refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, where more than a million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar live in flimsy shelters.
Officials have advised nearly 32,000 Rohingya refugees who have moved from camps to a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal to stay indoors.
“We felt the force of the strong winds, but we survived,” Mohamad Arman, a Rohingya refugee, told Reuters by phone.
Heavy rain fell on the streets of the capital, Dhaka, causing some flooding and disabling commuters.
The cyclone also affected the state of West Bengal in eastern India.
South Asia has seen an increase in extreme weather in recent years causing widespread damage. Environmentalists warn that climate change may lead to more disasters, especially in places like densely populated Bangladesh.
Farah Kabir, ActionAid’s director in Bangladesh, said 2022 saw climate emergencies such as floods and droughts “on a scale we’ve never seen before”.
“The climate crisis is getting worse and here in Bangladesh we feel the severity,” he said.
“When extreme weather events like Cyclone Citrang strike, communities are left devastated. We urgently need access to funds that support communities living in the realities of the climate crisis.”
MI