At least nine people have died after a cyclone slammed into Bangladesh, forcing the evacuation of around a million people from their homes, officials said Tuesday.
Cyclones — the equivalent of hurricanes in the Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific — are a regular menace but scientists say climate change is likely making them more intense and frequent.
Cyclone Sitrang made landfall in southern Bangladesh late Monday but authorities managed to get about a million people to safety before the monster weather system hit
Nine individuals have perished, the most as a result of trees collapsing, including three members of one family in Cumilla’s eastern region, according to Jebun Nahar, a government official.
According to Kamrul Ahsan, secretary of the Disaster Management Ministry, those who were evacuated from low-lying areas such as remote islands and river banks were placed in hundreds of multi-story cyclone shelters.
He stated, “They stayed the night in cyclone shelters.
According to officials, in other instances, police had to persuade locals who were hesitant to leave their houses.
Cities including Dhaka, Khulna, and Barisal were flooded by the country’s widespread heavy rains, which also dumped 324 millimetres (13 inches) of rain on the city on Monday.
Officials ordered the 33,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to stay inside and stated there were no reports of any injuries or property damage. The refugees had been controversially transferred from the mainland to a storm-prone island in the Bay of Bengal.
Thousands of people were evacuated to more than 100 relief centres in the neighbouring eastern Indian state of West Bengal on Monday, according to officials, but there were no reports of property damage and people began to return home on Tuesday.
More than 100 people were killed in Bangladesh and India by Storm Amphan, the second “super cyclone” to ever be recorded over the Bay of Bengal. Millions of people were also affected.
Better forecasting and more efficient evacuation preparation have significantly decreased the number of fatalities from such storms in recent years. The deadliest reported event occurred in 1970 and killed thousands of people.
