Cyclone hits Bangladesh coast, damages homes

Source: Reuters Foundation
Date: 17 Apr 2009

By Nizam Ahmed
DHAKA, April 17 (Reuters) - A cyclone battered the Bangladesh coast with heavy rain and winds of up to 100 kph (62 mph) on Friday, forcing the storm-prone country to evacuate thousands of people, officials said.

Thousands of mud-walled and bamboo-constructed houses, vast areas of crops, trees, electricity and telephone poles were damaged, leaving parts of the Cox's Bazar and Chittagong areas without power and telecommunications.
Officials said they had no immediate word on any casualties from Cyclone Bijli.

"(The storm) is still battering and is likely to pass the Chittagong region towards Tripura in eastern India losing strength gradually," said disaster management official Salahuddin Chowdhury.

Officials said Cyclone Bijli had roared in from the Bay of Bengal, causing high waves and a tidal surge which might reach up to 10 feet (three metres) above the normal tide.

More than 200,000 people had been evacuated to shelters in the Chittagong and Cox's Bazar districts, local residents said.

Storms and cyclones batter Bangladesh almost every year. A cyclone in April 1991 killed about 140,000 people and another in November 2007 killed around 3,000.

Activity at the normally busy Chittagong port was suspended and ships moved to outer anchorages or other safer locations, said Commodore R.U. Ahmed, chairman of the port authority. Flights at the airport were suspended from Friday evening.

Many tourists had already left the Cox's Bazar beach resort, officials said.

Bangladesh's air force removed fighter aircraft and other equipment from its Chittagong base. A number of planes were damaged when sea waters swamped the base in the 1991 cyclone.

(Additional reporting by Anis Ahmed and Serajul Islam Quadir, and Nurul Islam in COX'S BAZAR)
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