Cyclone batters Bangladesh
High winds kill five and thousands of homes damaged
COX’S BAZAR, BANGLADESH // Cyclone Mora battered Bangladesh yesterday, killing five people, damaging thousands of homes in remote islands in the Bay of Bengal and ripping through a camp housing thousands of Rohingya refugees who had fled violence in Myanmar.
Tropical storm Mora started crossing the country’s southern coastal region early in the day, with winds of 89 kilometres an hour and gusts of up to 117kph. Nearly 600,000 people had been moved to safety in cyclone shelters, schools and offices after the danger alert was raised to 10, the highest level. More than 1,000 shelters were set up in several districts, including Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong, and more than 20,000 volunteers were on hand.
Authorities said they relocated nearly 600,000 people from vulnerable areas before the storm hit the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, bringing winds of up to 135kph.
Disaster management authorities said four people had been crushed by falling trees. 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. Authorities there said at least 17,000 homes, excluding the Rohingya shelters, had been damaged in the dis- trict, with many low-lying villages inundated by a storm surge reaching 1.3 metres.
The local head of the International Organisation for Migration, which co-ordinates 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, about 60 to 70 per cent of the plastic roofs have been blown away.
“Some mud walls have collapsed,” said Sanjukta Sahany. “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 remove undocumented Rohingya, although those with official refugee status were alerted.
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.”
Cox’s Bazar has for years been home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a stateless minority living mostly in Myanmar.
Their numbers have swelled since a crackdown last October by the Myanmar military sent 70,000 fleeing into Bangladesh.
Cyclone Mora came days after heavy rains in Sri Lanka killed at least 193 people, many of them buried under landslides.
Yesterday the annual monsoon rains hit the southern Indian state of Kerala, from where they will move across the country over the coming months. Mohammad Anam, a Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh last year from Myanmar, said there had been no attempt to shift the minority community.
“Nobody came to alert or evacu- ate us. When the storm came we rushed to local schools to take shelter,” he said. But Abul Hashim, spokesman for the disaster management department, said authorities moved out only the most vulnerable from low-lying coastal areas.
“Rohingya live in hilly areas. There’s no chance for these areas to be inundated by storm surge.”
Authorities called in all fishing vessels and suspended flights to and from airports in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.
The weather bureau said the cyclone lost power as it went into the Rangamati hill district and was expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression with rain.