DHAKA, 16 November 2007 — A super cyclone lashed Bangladesh’s southwest coastline, ripping off tin roofs from houses and uprooting trees, as half a million people were evacuated to shelters.
London-based Tropical Storm Risk said Cyclone Sidr was a Category 4 storm, packing winds of 135 knots, and was heading due north on a course that would take it over the heavily populated southern coast and then toward the capital, Dhaka.
The coastal districts of Bhola, Barisal, Patuakhali, Barguna, Pirojpur, Jhalakati, Bagerhat, Khulna, Satkhira, Jessore and their offshore islands are in the storm’s path.
“From my window, I can see tins ripped off the roofs and tree branches flying under the sky covered with thick clouds,” said Moulvi Feroze Ahmed, a local government official on St. Martin’s island in the Bay of Bengal near the storm. “It looks like the sea is coming to grab us,” he said.
The storm started blowing fiercely at 5.p.m. (1100 GMT) at Dublarchar and nearby fishing islands and at the Hiron Point near the Sundarbans at 7 p.m. (1300 GMT), local officials said. The mangrove forests in the Sundarbans are home to the endangered Bengal tigers and the park is a World Heritage site.
Both areas have been hit by winds up to 150 kph (90 mph), said a reporter at nearby Mongla, quoting weather officials.
Power and telephone links have been largely cut, but some mobile networks are working sporadically, the reporter said.
Navy officials said many of Dublarchar’s nearly 15,000 fishermen were believed to have taken shelter in the Sundarban mangroves, with their boats.
Rivers flowing into the Bay of Bengal along parts of the southern coast have all swollen and are still rising, water department officials said.
Some areas have been inundated by a storm surge of up to 7 feet (2.3 meters), and many thatched homes were swept away, disaster management officials said.
The Bangladesh Meteorology Department said the core of the storm was now about 150 km (90 miles) from the Mongla coast and was expected to make landfall around midnight (1800 GMT).
Officials at Cox’s Bazar, a popular tourist destination, said they had evacuated nearly 200,000 people to about 600 government and private shelters and asked others to move on their own.
Around 400,000 more were evacuated from other coastal areas, disaster management officials said.
Nearly 10 million Bangladeshis live along the southern coast, which usually takes the brunt of cyclones, but the area has shelters for only about half a million.
Chittagong and Mongla ports suspended operations on Wednesday and moved ships to safer areas, port officials said. Chittagong airport suspended flights and moved planes away, officials said.
All schools and colleges in Chittagong and other towns in the storm’s path have been shut down and fishing trawlers have been asked to return to port immediately.
The Meteorology Department raised danger signal number 10, the highest, at Mongla, Bangladesh’s second main seaport, and number 9 at Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.
The storm was expected to hit India’s West Bengal coast around midnight with wind speeds of up to 200 km per hour, said B.P. Yadav, a senior weather official. “We have suggested evacuation of people from the region,” he added.
