At least four people were killed on Thursday as cyclonic storm ‘Mahasen’ battered Bangladesh’s southwestern coastlines, forcing authorities to evacuate over one million people from low-lying areas.
The cyclone lashed the southern Patuakhali coast with wind speed up to 90 km per hour and now proceeded towards northeastern coastlines.
“The cyclone has now touched the land, gradually losing its strength … It is heading towards Bandarban (hill district) partly ravaging the Noakhali and Chittagong coasts,” said meteorology department’s deputy director Shamsuddin Ahmed.
The heavy rainfall largely weakened the Mahasen and it was likely to take a natural death once it reached Bandarban hill day after its emergence in the sea, he said, adding that the Storm caused less damage than had been feared as it passed over Bangladesh, sparing Myanmar almost entirely.
Its current velocity was lowered to 25 kilometre per hour as against the initial wind speed of up to 90 kilometre per hour.
Unconfirmed reports claimed six people were killed, but officials said they gathered reports of four deaths in Barguna, Bhola and Patuakhali districts as the Mahasen first struck the southwestern coastline.
The deaths were caused by drowning or the victims were hit by falling trees.
At least 18 deaths were reported in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, but officials had prepared for a far greater storm as the United Nations had warned that 8.2 million people could face life-threatening conditions.
“The situation is turning normal and the people have started returning home after some 200,000 people took overnight refuge at cyclone shelters at (southwestern) Barisal Division,” divisional commissioner of Barisal, Mohammad Nurul Amin, told the sate-run BSS news agency.
“The damage was not that much what we were suspected and people who took shelters have already started moving to their houses as the weather is becoming almost normal,” he said.
However, reports and witnesses said Mahasen ravaged parts of southwestern coastline packing winds up to 90 km per hour, damaging hundreds of thatched houses and standing crops and uprooting a large number of tress.
Officials said the authorities had evacuated nearly two lakh people and sent to 1,365 shelters across the division while most parts of the Barisal region went beyond electricity supply.
Meteorology department director Shah Alam earlier said the Mahasen first hit the Khepupara of Patuakhali and then it proceeded towards the Noakhali and Chittagong Coast through the confluence of the Tentulia and Meghna rivers.
Bhola’s deputy commissioner Khandaker Mostafizur Rahman earlier said some 5,000 persons were stranded at Char Nizam, 25 km inside the Bay of Bengal, and all communication with that island were snapped but no major tidal surge eventually hit the area as feared.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated to safety as a cyclone brewed earlier in the Bay of Bengal approached Bangladesh coastlines when the MeT office issued Danger Signal no 7 in a scale of 10.
Authorities said armed forces were kept prepared with troops, ships and helicopters to launch rescue operations when the cyclonic storm hit the coast while Red Crescent volunteers used megaphones asking people to move out of their homes with their valuables.
The authorities on Wednesday closed temporarily the country’s two seaports in Chittagong and Mongla as well as airports in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong, while Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) ordered small boats and vessels to be stationed in safety in the face of the impending danger.
PTI