At least 24 people died in different districts while about a million were evacuated and shifted to shelter homes after Cyclone Sitrang slammed into coasts between Chattogram and Barishal in Bangladesh, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
After making landfall in southern Bangladesh late on Monday, Cyclone Sitrang carved a path of devastation across the country, packing gale-force winds and heavy rains. However, the authorities acted promptly and managed to evacuate about a million people to safe locations before the monster weather system hit.
Cyclone shelters
Disaster Management Ministry secretary Kamrul Ahsan told the media that people evacuated from low-lying regions, including river banks and remote islands were shifted to multi-story cyclone shelters.
“They spent the night in cyclone shelters. And this morning many are heading back to their homes,” he said.
Heavy rains lashed most parts of Bangladesh, flooding cities as far away as the capital Dhaka, which is hundreds of kilometers away from the epicenter of the cyclone. Khulna and Barisal cities also experienced flash flooding after witnessing 324mm of rainfall on Monday.
Power outage
The storm uprooted trees and utility poles in various districts, and knocked out power and telecom connections, causing extensive damage to power lines in the coastal zone. As a result about 10 million people were left without power in 15 coastal districts. Power has been restored to parts of Bangladesh after an 18-hour outage. As of 12 pm on Tuesday, various urban parts of Bangladesh including Cumilla, Brahmanbaria, Feni, Chandpur, Noakhali, and Lakshmipur were still without power.
Schools were also shut across southern and southwestern regions of Bangladesh.
Falling trees caused deaths
A government official Jebun Nahar told that the maximum deaths in affected areas were caused by falling trees. Two people also died after a boat sank in the Jamuna River in the north.
“We still have not got all the reports of damages,” she told the media.