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| Cyclone claims 21 lives in Bangladesh |
| Anisur Rahman/ PTI / Dhaka May 26, 2009, 11:07 IST |
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At least 21 people, mostly children, were killed as the tropical cyclone 'Aila' lashed Bangladesh's southern coastlines with wind-driven tidal surges inundating residential areas and breaching embankments.
Reports reaching here said 21 people, mostly children, died of drowning or house collapses as abnormal tidal waves up to 13 feet high made their way to residential areas damaging dozens of flood control structures like dams.
Meteorologists said, the cyclone packing windspeed of up to 100 kilometre per hour, crossed the Bangladesh coastlines yesterday evening with a radius of 300 kilometres but due to the coincidence of new moon, it inflated the sea waters creating tidal waves higher than expected to batter a larger area.
They, however, said Bangladesh escaped its main brunt that hit the neighbouring West Bengal of India but officials and local sources reported that the killer surges washed away a large number of cattle, crops and fishing farms including shrimp cultivation grounds that account for the country's major export earnings.
The reports said over 500 people, mostly fishermen, were missing, though Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak last night said the officials until then could confirm only five deaths.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked army and paramilitary forces to join hands with the local administration and non-government volunteers in rescue operations as several lakh people were marooned in the inundated offshore islands with many finding refuge on the roofs of their submerged houses or trees.
Officials said Bangladesh Navy and Coastguard ships could not immediately go to the offshore islands from Chittagong due to the turbulent sea but joined the rescue operation in the morning.
The highest five deaths were reported from Bhola district as the storm made its way to West Bengal leaving marks of its main scourge in southwestern shoreline.
"At least 50,000 people took refuge at cyclone shelters but another 100,000 are believed to be marooned by gushing waters due to sudden embankment collapse in 13 upazilas (sub-districts)," Red Crescent spokeswomen Rezia Jobed told PTI.
The aid agency officials said they were reviewing the situation collecting reports from their nearly 50,000 volunteers in coastlines who earlier joined the massive evacuation campaign with troops and local officials.
Bangladesh had already suspended operations of the main southeastern Chittagong and southwestern ports and halted ferry services in riverine routes as the met office had issued the 'danger signal no 7' in a scale of 10 for the coastline.
A cyclone code-named 'Bijli' or thunder hit Bangladesh coast last month killing at least six people and injuring several dozen others. The country witnessed the worst cyclone in recent decades on November 15, 2007 when the killer 'Sidr' lashed the southwestern coast killing nearly 3,500 people.
In 1970, some half a million people died when a cyclone hit the impoverished country, while an estimated 138,000 people died during a cyclonic surge in 1991.
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