Thousands leave as Bangladesh braces for Bijli
Cyclone downgraded to tropical storm, UN organization says
Thousands of people were evacuated from the coastal areas along the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh as a tropical storm began lashing the disaster-prone country on Friday. Cyclone Bijli was downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday, according to UN World Meteorological Organization's meteorological centre for the region. But the storm still packed 80 km/h winds as it struck Bangladesh's coastline on Friday, triggering high waves and a tidal surge expected to be three metres above normal tide levels.
Thousands of people fled the coastal areas for shelters established by emergency service officials. More than 10,000 people evacuated the Cox's Bazar resort district in the low-lying delta country as the storm moved in, battering the thatched houses in the region and uprooting trees. Officials were reporting heavy rain and widespread power outages.
Move to shelters, coastal residents warned - The storm was about 250 kilometres southwest of Chittagong, where it was expected to make landfall early Saturday, according to the meteorological organization. Authorities are advising people in coastal districts, including Cox's Bazar, Barisal, Barguna and Chittagong, to move to shelters immediately. The storm is also expected to hit the Mongla port, meteorologists said.
Bangladesh grades storm systems on a range of one to 10, and was labelling Bijli as a Level 6 storm alert on Friday. Though the meteorological organization was forecasting that the storm would continue to weaken before making landfall, Bangladeshi officials said they were preparing for the possibility of widespread disaster. "We have opened an emergency control room in the [disaster management] ministry and at all field level offices, particularly in coastal areas," A.H.M. Abdullah, director of the Disaster Management Bureau, told Reuters.
Severe storms and cyclones are common in Bangladesh and generally result in casualties, crop damage and the destruction of property. In 1991, a cyclone killed about 140,000 people. In 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed about 3,000.
Preparing for landfall - The storm could result in the need to move out millions of people, officials said. Thousands of volunteers with Red Crescent are already operating in the country, and security, rescue and medical workers are preparing for landfall in the area, officials said. There are more than 500 cyclone shelters along the 300-km coastline with the capacity to house about 500,000 people.
Flights from area airports were suspended on Friday and activity in local ports was cancelled. Boats had been ordered to take shelter on Thursday. Many offshore islands are already caught in the storm. It is believed that several fishing boats had not reached shore before the cyclone moved in and are now caught in rough seas, officials said.
In neighbouring Myanmar, also known as Burma, residents along the coast were being urged to stay away from the sea over the next two days while the storm moves through the region.
CBCnews.ca