Cyclone kills 21 in Bangladesh, forces thousands to flee homes

DHAKA: A cyclone battered coastal Bangladesh on Saturday, killing at least 21 people and injuring many more, but has now weakened into a depression that the weather office said could still bring brief periods of violent wind or rain. 

Authorities in low-lying Bangladesh have moved about 500,000 people into 3,500 shelters, the disaster minister said.  Cyclone  Roanu has killed people in house collapses, landslides and a  storm surge that broke embankments at two places in the  Chittagong port city in the southeast. 

“We’ve shifted most of the people who are vulnerable,” said  Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain  Chowdhury Maya, adding that people were working “all-out” to  contain and tackle the damage.  Several people were injured after gusty winds damaged houses  and shops and uprooted trees and electric poles. 

Some places  were inundated by a storm surge of 3 to 4 feet above normal tide height, officials said. Authorities were also evacuating people from hilly parts of  Chittagong in case persistent rain triggers more landslides. Officials suspended flights at Chittagong airport while the  Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority restricted movement  of all ships and ferries. 

The weather office, in its final update for the day, advised fishing boats and trawlers to remain in shelter until Sunday  noon. Bangladesh is frequently battered by such storms.  More than  3,000 people were killed by Cyclone Sidr in 2007 and around 200  lives were lost to Cyclone Aila in 2009.

Disaster authorities have shut down sea and river ports and ordered fishing trawlers not to go out, while the meteorological department warned of landslides in southeastern hill districts. Officials said that they were prepared to move more than two million people to nearly 4,000 cyclone shelters in the country’s south.

Local media say the deaths were caused by the collapse of houses in Bhola, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Patuakhali districts. Cyclone Roanu crossed the southern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar and weakened after triggering rains.

The meteorological office said in a statement that dozens of villages had been submerged by floodwaters. Mohammed Ali Hossain, a government administrator, said about 100,000 people were forced from their homes on Moheshkhali island in Cox’s Bazar. “Our teams are working there. We are arranging dry food for them and other resources they need urgently,” he said.