Almost 200 dead as cyclone turns on Bangladesh
Print Edition
AN intensifying cyclone churned north towards Bangladesh yesterday after heavy rain in Sri Lanka and thunderstorms in eastern India killed almost 200 people, with more torrential downpours forecast.
Impoverished Bangladesh, hit by cyclones every year, warned that some low-lying coastal areas were “likely to be inundated by a storm surge of 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters)” above normal and raised the storm danger signal, on a scale of one to 10, to seven.
Floods and landslides in tropical Sri Lanka, off India’s southern tip, have killed at least 169 people in recent days, authorities said, with 24 killed in storms in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, either by lightning strikes or under collapsed village huts.
India warned of heavy rain in the northeastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as Mora moved further up the Bay of Bengal.
Floods reached roof level and cut off access to many rural Sri Lankan villages, disrupting life for half a million people, many of them workers on rubber plantations.
Villagers in Agalawatte, in a key rubber-growing area 74 km southeast of the capital, Colombo, said they were losing hope of water levels falling soon after the heaviest rain since 2003. Fifty-three villagers died and 58 were missing.
“All access to our village is cut off. A landslide took place inside the village and several houses are buried,” said Mohamed Abdulla, 46.
“My entire village is cut off and nobody can come to this village,” said C.M. Chandrapla, 54, from Neluwa. “There have been no supplies for the past two days. Water has gone above three-story buildings and people survive by running to higher ground.”
Bangladesh is hit by devastating storms every year.
Half a million people had their lives disrupted in low-lying coastal areas such as Barisal and Chittagong in May last year. They are still recovering from the flash floods that affected millions of people, in April. Rice prices have reached record highs and state reserves are at 10-year lows in the wake of flooding that wiped out around 700,000 tonnes of rice.
Authorities will relocate thousands from coastal areas before Mora hits, officials said. About 10 million of Bangladesh’s population of 160 million live in low-lying coastal areas.
“We have taken all sorts of steps to minimise any losses, including moving people away from the most vulnerable areas,” Kazi Adbur Rahman, a senior government official in Cox’s Bazaar said.
The Sri Lankan military has sent in helicopters and boats in rescue efforts in the most widespread disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. About 100 people were missing in total.
The meteorology department forecast torrential rains over the next 36 hours and asked residents in seven densely populated districts in the south and center of Sri Lanka to move away from unstable slopes in case of further landslides.
The wettest time of the year in Sri Lanka’s south is usually during the southern monsoon, from May to September. The island also receives heavy rains in the North West monsoonal season from November to February.
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