Cyclone Sitrang hits BD, hundreds of thousands evacuated

PATUAKHALI, Bangladesh: Cyclone Sitrang slammed into densely-populated, low-lying Bangladesh late on Monday, killing at least five people as authorities fearing heavy rain and storm surge rushed to move hundreds of thousands out of the system´s path.

Sitrang, packing winds of 80-km per hour, made landfall along the Chittagong-Barisal coast around 9:00 pm (1500 GMT), government meteorologist Abul Kalam Mallick told AFP. The storm was moving swiftly over the country´s southern region and its outer bands were already impacting Dhaka, hundreds of kilometers away from the Bay of Bengal, with trees uprooted and roads flooded in the capital. Mallick said some coastal towns had received nearly 294 milimetres (12 inches) of rainfall.

At least five people had been killed in the districts of Barguna, Narail, Sirajganj and the island district of Bhola, disaster ministry control room spokesman Nikhil Sarker told AFP. “The casualties may rise as we are hearing from our officials from some other districts as well,” he said. Cyclones -- the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the Northwest Pacific -- are a regular and deadly menace on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean where tens of millions of people live.

But scientists say climate change is likely making them more intense and frequent, and Bangladesh is already rated by the United Nations as one of the countries most affected by extreme weather events since the turn of the century.

Most worrying for authorities was the predicted storm surge of up to three metres (10 feet) above normal tide levels, which could inundate areas home to millions of people. About 33,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, controversially relocated to a storm-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, were advised to remain indoors.