[GOTFIVEONIT]

Most locals have been evacuated or have taken cover in shelters



"The cyclone has battered Bangladeshi coastal areas" -

Samarendra Karmakar
Director, Bangladesh meteorological department


Last Updated: Thursday, 15 November 2007, 16:58 GMT

Bangladesh braces as cyclone hits

A powerful tropical storm which forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes has hit Bangladesh's coast.

The cyclone made landfall in the south-west, packing winds of up to 240kph (150mph), the director of the country's meteorological office said.

Coastal residents in low-lying Bangladesh have been warned of possible tidal surges at least 3m high.

More than 40,000 policemen, soldiers, coastguards and health workers have been deployed along the coast.

The cyclone may also affect eastern India and the west coast of Burma.

'Schools blown away'

Tropical Cyclone Sidr came ashore in an area of mangrove forests known as the Sundarbans - a world heritage site and home to rare royal Bengal tigers.

It is now moving north.

"Many trees have been uprooted and houses and schools blown away," Mostofa Kamal, a district relief and rehabilitation officer, told the news agency AFP by phone from Barisal, north of the Sundarbans.

"There are no reports of deaths so far. We can not get out to get much information because of the severe storm," he said.

"The cyclone has battered Bangladeshi coastal areas," Samarendra Karmakar - director of Bangladesh's meteorological department - told AFP news agency.

"The velocity of the wind in that area is 220-240kph. [This] is a violent storm."

But Mr Karmakar added that most of the five million people living in the area should already have been evacuated or have taken cover in cyclone shelters or government buildings.

India prepares

Operations have been suspended at the main ports of Mongla and Chittagong, which have been put on alert with the coastal town of Cox's Bazar.

In the Indian state of West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh, the minister for disaster management Mortaza Hossain told the BBC measures had been taken including putting the military on alert, stockpiling food, and using loudspeaker announcements to tell residents to seek shelter.

Southern Bangladesh is often hit by cyclones, but experts say the latest one is a category four storm, the most powerful so far in the season.

Bangladesh developed a network of cyclone shelters and a storm early warning system, after a cyclone killed more than 500,000 people in 1970.

Casualties from cyclones has been significantly reduced as a result, officials say.

[riad19]

i was in Khulna when the last hurricane of this stature hit the city. i think it was 1988 or 89. i remember walking outside the next morning and seeing all the trees on the ground, blocking all the roads. and there were literally thousands and thousands of birds that were laying dead on the streets

[Dubai3000]

why is one city named cox bazar? what kind of name is that

[GOTFIVEONIT]

Originally Posted by Dubai3000

why is one city named cox bazar? what kind of name is that

lol you have a dirty mind

[GOTFIVEONIT]

Report: Cyclone kills 425 in Bangladesh

36 minutes ago

DHAKA, Bangladesh - A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh's coast with 140 mph winds has killed at least 425 people, United News of Bangladesh reported Friday.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr roared across the country's southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves. While government estimates had earlier put the death toll at 242, the news agency — which has reporters deployed across the devastated region — said they had made their own count in each affected district.

The government has acknowledged its trouble keeping count. The official disaster control room in Dhaka, the capital, is struggling to collect information with power and phone lines down in most remote areas. But Dalil Uddin, an official with the Ministry of Disaster Management, said Friday evening that the official toll also would go much higher than 242.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A cyclone killed 242 people and left much of southern Bangladesh cut off from the rest of the country before heading inland and losing strength Friday, officials said.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr roared across the country's southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves, spawning a 4-foot water surge that left low-lying areas and some offshore islands under water, according to Nahid Sultana, an official at a cyclone control room in the capital, Dhaka.

But by early Friday, the cyclone had weakened into a tropical storm and was moving across the country to the northeast, the department said, adding that while skies remained overcast, wind speed had fallen to 37 mph.

The cyclone flattened thousands of flimsy straw and mud huts, uprooted trees, electricity and telephone poles, and destroyed crops and fish farms in 15 coastal districts, local government officials and witnesses said.

The worst hit areas were communities in southern Bangladesh where most of the victims were killed by falling trees or debris from collapsing homes, while some drowned after falling off boats, Sultana said.

Much of the region remained without electricity and phone lines Friday, while blocked roads, rails and rivers left many areas cut off.

Power and communications in Dhaka were also down. Strong winds uprooted trees, snapped power and telephone lines, and sent billboards flying through the air, injuring several people, said Ashraful Zaman, another official at the cyclone control room.

At least 650,000 coastal villagers moved Thursday to cyclone shelters where they were given emergency rations, Ali Imam Majumder, a senior government official, told reporters in Dhaka.

On Friday, government and volunteer agencies dispatched relief and medical teams to the affected areas, where they had already sent dry foods, medicines, tents and blankets, he said.

Operations remained suspended at the country's two main seaports — Chittagong and Mongla — while ferry services and flights were yet to resume in the coastal region, authorities said.

The storm spared India's eastern coast, where the weather was calm Friday. India's Meteorological Department had forecast heavy rain and flooding in West Bengal and Orissa states.

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation, is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that cause huge losses of life and property. The coastal area borders eastern India and is famous for the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, a world heritage site that is home to rare Royal Bengal Tigers.

___

[GOTFIVEONIT]

Relatives of cyclone victims wail in Barishal, 120 kilometers, (75 miles) south of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh's coast with 150 mph winds killed at least 242 people, leveled homes and forced the evacuation of 650,000 villagers before heading inland and losing power Friday, officials said. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)







A labourer cleans up in Dhaka.

[riad19]

Originally Posted by Dubai3000

why is one city named cox bazar? what kind of name is that

la-hore is worse

[GOTFIVEONIT]

Elephants are being used to help clear roads



Path of Cyclone Sidr across Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh

Last Updated: Saturday, 17 November 2007, 14:49 GMT

Bangladesh toll more than 1,500

More than 1,500 people are now known to have died after a powerful cyclone ripped through southern and central Bangladesh, officials have said.

The government announced that 1,595 bodies had been recovered so far and that the toll was expected to rise.

Rescuers are trying to reach hundreds of thousands of survivors but debris and floods are hampering their efforts.

Cyclone Sidr destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes, brought down power lines and wiped out vital crops.

A huge relief operation is under way but the true extent of the destruction is only now emerging, the BBC's Mark Dummett in Dhaka reports.

Military helicopters and ships joined the rescue efforts on Saturday, helping deliver supplies and medical assistance to some of the most remote areas.

"We are expecting that thousands of dead bodies may be found within a few days," Shekhar Chandra Das, deputy head of the government's disaster management office, told AFP.

"We have not been able to collect information about casualties in many remote and impassable places due to the disruption to communications," he said.

Crops destroyed

The severity of the storm not only smashed homes, but destroyed vital food sources too. Officials say that in many areas 95% of rice which was awaiting harvest has been destroyed, and shrimp farms and other crops simply washed away.

"Many people are homeless, crops and livelihoods have been destroyed and this is going to put great pressure on the government, the economy, and the people themselves, particularly as this comes only a few months after floods devastated the northern part of the country," Suman SMA Islam, humanitarian assistance co-ordinator for the aid agency Care, told Reuters.

As well as helicopters being used to ferry supplies to hard hit areas, ships are also at work clearing channels blocked with sunken vessels.

On land, elephants are being employed to clear some of the heavier debris from roads.

The storm hit Bangladesh late on Thursday, with winds rising to 240km/h (150mph).

It passed through the capital Dhaka hours later, before dying down in the north-east of the country.

The biggest challenge for southern Bangladesh will now be reconstruction, the BBC's Mark Dummett says.

Trail of destruction

One witness in the south-western Bagerhat district told the news agency AFP that the storm had destroyed 80% of the homes in his village.

"I cannot describe how devastating it was. It was like doomsday, the most frightening five hours of my life. I thought I would never see my family again," said local businessman Mollik Tariqur Rahman.

"There is a trail of destruction everywhere. We can't even detect exactly where our houses were built - only a few are left and they do not have roofs," he said.

Many people are thought to have been killed as falling trees levelled fragile houses made of thatch, wood and tin.

The storm triggered 5m (16ft) tidal surges in many of the affected districts. Rivers flowing into the Bay of Bengal were said to be swollen and rising.

At least 150 fishing boats in the Bay of Bengal have failed to return to shore.

Hundreds of fishermen are feared missing.

Amid a virtual national blackout, the authorities have been struggling to get food, medicine, tents and blankets to the affected areas.

Food relief

An official from the UN World Food Programme said the most urgent needs were food, water purification tablets, and medicines.

The WFP is sending energy biscuits for 400,000 people. The government, the Red Crescent and other NGOs are also sending teams.

Bangladesh developed a network of cyclone shelters and a storm early-warning system, after a cyclone killed more than 500,000 people in 1970.

Casualties from cyclones have been significantly reduced as a result, officials say.

Southern Bangladesh is hit every year by cyclones and floods, but Cyclone Sidr is the most destructive storm to hit the country in more than a decade.

Another storm in 1991 left some 143,000 dead.