Advancing cyclone starts ravaging Bangladesh coastlines killing 5

At least five people, including a mother and one daughter of a family, were killed and over 100 inJured as the advancing cyclonic storm Roanu started battering the southern coastlines with the met office saying the main brunt of the storm is expected to hit the coast later today. 

Officials and reports said under the peripheral impact of the cyclone stormy winds leveled several hundred village huts in the southwestern coastal Bhola district leaving the two dead and over 100 wounded indicating the cyclone was advancing with intensified wraths. 

The reports said a minor child and a woman in Bhola and another person in Patuakhali district appeared to be the first victims of the cyclone which continued to advance keeping an edge with the coastlines from the southwesterly direction towards the southwest.

Meanwhile, our Chittagong Bureau office confirmed that a woman and his daughter was killed in landslide which caused due to heavy downpour early this morning at the hilly Salimpur area of the port city. 

A special met office bulletin issued this morning said their Doppler radar network found the cyclone to have advanced further to the coastlines while it was located at about 255-km west-southwest of Chittagong port, 230-km west-southwest of Cox's Bazar Port,190-km south of Mongla Port and 135-km south of Payra Port at 6 in the morning. 

"It is likely to move in east-north-easterly direction further and may cross Barisal-Chittagong coast by morning/noon of 21st may 2016," the bulletin read. 

The met office late yesterday turned its "local warning signals" to "danger signals" for all its four seaports, asking ports of southwestern Mongla, Payra and southeastern Chittagong to hoist signal number 7and southeastern Cox's Bazar 6, on the scale of 10. 

"The danger signals are applicable for 14 out of 18 coastal districts," a meteorologist earlier told BSS. 

Authorities earlier launched a massive evacuation campaign in southern coastlines mobilizing rescue teams saying thousands were moved to cyclone shelters already as they expected nearly 21,50,000 people in 13 most vulnerable coastal districts to be shifted to safety before the cyclone hit the coast with its full wrath. 

An inter-ministerial meeting earlier scrapped Friday and Saturday's weekend holidays for public employees in 18 coastal districts officials saying 50,000 volunteers trained under the Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) and all Red Crescent volunteers and boy scouts were prepared to join the campaign". 

Bangladesh's main port of Chittagong, meanwhile, internally issued a "red alert" ordering ships to immediately leave the port and anchor in the outer anchorage for the safety of the facility and asked the lighterages to take shelter inside a mainland river. 

Authorities also ordered suspension of ferry services in the internal riverine networks as the weather turned rough in the rivers as well. 

Officials said the entire coastal region witnessed drizzles or light rains as the skyline remained gloomy since yesterday sending a signal for an impending danger. 

But deputy commissioner or administrative chief of southeastern Lakkhipur Zillur Rahman told BSS that people were largely reluctant to move to cyclone shelters despite repeated calls by volunteers and village guards using megaphones. 

"The people are exposed to danger, but most of them are unwilling to take refuge in shelters saying they were familiar with such warnings but the cyclones did not hit eventually," he said. 

Bangladesh is vulnerable to cyclones because of its location at the triangular shaped head of the Bay of Bengal, the sea-level geography of its coastal area and its high population density while two deadliest cyclones occurred in 1970 and 1991 claiming some 500 000 and almost 140 000 lives respectively. 

But during the past 20 years, the country managed to reduce deaths and injuries from cyclones while the most recent severe cyclone of 2007 caused 4234 deaths, a 100-fold reduction compared with the devastating 1970 cyclone, according to experts.

Source: BSS.