Five dead as cyclone batters Bangladesh

CYCLONE Mora battered Bangladesh yesterday, killing five people, damaging thousands of homes and ripping through a camp housing thousands of Rohingya refugees who had fled violence in Myanmar.

Authorities said they evacuated nearly 600 000 people from vulnerable areas before the storm hit the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar early yesterday, bringing winds of up to 135km/h.

Disaster management authorities said five people had been killed, four of them crushed by falling trees. It was not immediately clear how the fifth person died.

Authorities in Cox’s Bazar said at least 17 000 homes, excluding the Rohingya shelters, had been damaged, with many low-lying villages inundated by a storm surge reaching 1.3m.

Some of the worst damage was at the camps housing the 300 000 Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar, many of them in flimsy huts.

The head of the International Organisation for Migration, which coordinates relief for the refugees, said the bulk of the homes at one camp had their roofs blown off.

“We’re already in the field. At Kutupalong camp, which I am visiting now, some 60-70% of the plastic roofs have been blown away. Some mud walls have collapsed,” Sanjukta Sahany said.

“Rohingya people have already started repairing their houses.”

Kutupalong houses nearly 14 000 registered refugees, although many more recent arrivals who lack official refugee status are also said to be living there.

Community leaders said there had been no attempt to evacuate undocumented Rohingya, although those with official refugee status were alerted about the dangers.

Abdul Salam, a Rohingya community leader, said about 20 000 homes had been damaged and some residents injured.

“In some places, almost every shanty home made of tin, bamboo and plastic has been flattened,” he said.

Cox’s Bazar has been home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya for years, a stateless minority living mostly in Myanmar. Their numbers have swelled since a brutal crackdown last October by the Myanmar military sent 70 000 fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.

Away from the camps, authorities had evacuated nearly 600 000 people to cyclone shelters, schools and offices after raising the highest number 10 weather danger alert.

Cyclone Mora comes days after heavy rains in Sri Lanka killed at least 193 people, many of them buried under landslides, and brought the worst flooding the island has seen in 14 years.

South Asia is frequently hit by flooding in the summer with the arrival of monsoon rains.

Yesterday, they hit the southern Indian state of Kerala, from where they will sweep across the country over the coming months.

Authorities called in all fishing vessels and suspended flights to and from airports in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.

The weather department said the cyclone lost power as it headed into the Rangamati hill district and turned into a depression, bringing rain. – AFP