By Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) -Authorities in Bangladesh were evacuating hundreds of thousands of people on Monday before Cyclone Sitrang made landfall amid fears of heavy damage to houses and crops and disruption to road and power links.
Approaching from the Bay of Bengal, Sitrang was expected to hit the southern coast near the Khepupara area of the Barishal-Chittaging early on Tuesday, with winds gusting up to 88 km (55 miles) per hour, the weather office said.
It forecast a storm surge of up to three meters (10 feet) that could swamp mud dwellings along the coast, uproot communication towers and inundate roads.
All the people from the dangerous areas along the coastal belt were being evacuated to safer places, said Enamur Rahman, the junior minister for disaster management.
More than 7,000 cyclone shelters were set up to accommodate three million people, he said.
The coastal districts would experience storm tides and heavy rain as the tip of the cyclone started crossing the coast, meteorologist Monwar Hossain said.
A woman was killed by a falling tree in southwestern Narail district, local police said.
“It has been raining heavily all day long. We are just praying to Allah to save us,” Rohingya refugee Mohammed Taher told Reuters by phone.
Aid workers have stockpiled emergency items such as food, tarpaulins and water purification tablets in refugee camps housing more than a million Rohingya in flimsy shelters in Cox’s Bazar.
Officials also advised nearly 33,000 Rohingya refugees, moved from camps to a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, to stay indoors.
Heavy rain fell on the streets of the capital Dhaka, with some roads inundated with water, disrupting commuters.
Authorities in India’s West Bengal were also preparing to face the cyclone. A heavy rainfall alert has been issued for coastal areas of West Bengal.
Sanjeev Bandopadhyay, deputy director of the India Meteorological Department, said the cyclone had intensified as it moved over the Bay of Bengal. It was likely to skirt past Sunderbans region, but several areas would receive heavy rainfall.
Disaster relief teams were stationed in the coastal towns and tourist attractions such as Digha, Bakkhali and Sagar Island.
Bandopadhyay said water in all the rivers in the Sunderbans delta were rising and may reach up to 10 to 15 meters during Sitrang’s landfall.
The two neighbouring countries have experienced increasing extreme weather in recent years causing large-scale damage. Environmentalists warn that climate change could lead to more disasters, especially in densely populated Bangladesh.
“2022 has seen climate emergencies such as floods and droughts impact countries on a scale that has never been witnessed before. The climate crisis is growing, and here in Bangladesh we feel its ferocity,” said Farah Kabir, Bangladesh Country Director of ActionAid.
“When extreme weather events like Cyclone Sitrang strike, communities are left devastated. We urgently need access to funds that support communities living through the reality of the climate crisis.”
(Reporting by Ruma Paul Additional reporting by Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata, India, Editing by Bill Berkrot and Mark Potter)
