DHAKA: Two children drowned, about 400 fishermen were missing and thousands of people were marooned after storm-whipped waves from the Bay of Bengal swept Bangladesh’s vast coastline, officials said yesterday.
Seawater flooded at least three towns — Patuakhali, Jhalakathi and part of Cox’s Bazar — forcing many residents to flee as others huddled in their homes braving strong wind and heavy rain.
Weather officials said the sea surge was triggered by a depression in the northern Bay, likely to persist for a couple of days. They warned there could be more surge and flooding even though the depression was likely to cross India’s Orissa coast.
The Meteorology Office in the capital Dhaka said a well-marked low depression over the northwest bay and its adjoining areas moved west northwestward and intensified into a monsoon depression. “The depression is lying over southern Bangladesh and the Orissa coast in India,” said a Met Office bulletin.
Two children have drowned in Cox’s Bazar beach district, where fishing community leaders said around 400 fishermen were missing at sea. “The bay has been very rough since Monday, when dozens of boats managed to return to the shores, but about 400 fishermen in more than 30 boats are still unaccounted for,” said Nurul Islam Nuru, fishing community leader.
Tidal waves spawned by the storm have inundated Patuakhali town and dozens of islands along the coast, officials and weather monitors said. Ports have been asked to hoist distant warning signals while fishing trawlers and ships were advised to come back or stay close to shore.
The flooding damaged hundreds of homes, crops and fish farms, local officials said, without estimating losses. The sea waves struck while much of the country was still reeling under monsoon floods that have killed at least 20 people in the country’s northeastern areas over the past month.
Coastal inundation in the worst-hit Patuakhali district left homes and businesses under 2-meters of sea water forcing tourists to abandon the exclusive beaches, disaster management officials said. Tidal waves flooded the southern Khulna region washing away shrimp enclosures, thatched dwellings and rice growing on an estimated 10,000 hectares of lush lands.
Barguna, a popular fishing port in the south of the country, was almost deserted because of the evacuation of hundreds of families from the fragile coast to flood shelters. Islanders on the windswept coast were asked to abandon their seashore homes.
