800,000 Seek Shelter as Bangladesh Braces for Cyclone

AFP/APP

Bangladesh: At least 800,000 Bangladeshis fled their coastal villages to seek refuge in concrete storm shelters further inland, as the nation braced for the impact of an approaching cyclone, according to top government disaster officials on Sunday.  

Cyclone Remal is expected to hit the southern coast and parts of neighboring India late Sunday evening, with Bangladesh’s weather department forecasting gales and gusts of up to 130 kilometers (81 miles) per hour.

Over the past few decades, cyclones have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands in Bangladesh. The number of these superstorms hitting the densely populated coast has surged from one annually to as many as three due to climate change.

Senior weather official Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik informed AFP that the cyclone could generate a storm surge up to 12 feet (four meters) above the normal astronomical tide, posing a significant danger.

With most of Bangladesh’s coastal areas only one or two meters above sea level, such high storm surges have the potential to devastate villages. Authorities have elevated the danger signal to its highest level, cautioning fishermen against venturing into the sea and initiating evacuation orders for those in vulnerable regions.

“We are terrified,” said 35-year-old fisherman Yusuf Fakir from Kuakata, a town situated at the southern tip of Bangladesh, directly in the cyclone’s projected path.

He sent his wife and children to a relative’s home inland while he stayed behind to safeguard their belongings. “Our daily life is disrupted,” he said, recalling the devastation caused by previous cyclones.