Cyclone hits Bangladesh; thousands ordered out

Bangladeshi boat men wait for commuters at the Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, April 17, 2009. Authorities put tens of thousands of relief volunteers on alert and warned fishing boats to stay near shore as a cyclone approached Bangladesh's low-lying southern coast on Friday. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)
Associated Press
The outer edge of Cyclone Bijli began lashing southern Bangladesh on Friday night, officials said, as the government ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents from the country's low-lying coast. Neighboring Myanmar was also bracing for the storm.
Asadur Rahman, a weather official in the southeastern Bangladeshi city of Chittagong, said the storm was packing winds of 55 miles per hour (90 kilometers per hour). Accuweather.com said its center was about 150 mph (240 kph) from Calcutta, India, and moving northeast Friday night. It said the cyclone was slowly picking up steam and was expected to make landfall near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border late Saturday.

Officials throughout the region said they did not expect it to cause significant damage _ with some even saying the storm appeared to be weakening. But Accuweather.com warned it could still dump as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain on the region, and winds could reach 90 mph (145 kph). Rainfall at those levels could be devastating for Bangladesh _ a low-lying delta nation.

Rahman said Bijli hit some islands in the Bay of Bengal on Friday night as high winds and heavy downpours also began across the southern coastal districts of Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.

Cox's Bazar is 185 miles (296 kilometers) south of the capital, Dhaka.

The storm warnings came two weeks before the first anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which exploded onto Myanmar's coast on May 2 and cut a swath of destruction through the country's main rice-growing area, leaving nearly 140,000 people dead or missing. The government issued warnings Friday and told boats in the bay to seek shelter. But Accuweather.com said Bijli was on track to hit a hillier area of the country than Nargis.

Arif Ahmed, chief government administrator in Moheshkhali island, said they evacuated thousands of islanders to schools, mosques, government offices and 80 cyclone shelters _ concrete boxes on pillars. Some 350,000 people live in Moheshkhali.

Feroz Khan, a local government official in Saint Martins island, said they evacuated thousands more.

In the coastal district of Bhola, which is 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of the capital, Dhaka, several thousands of people were evacuated, said the area's chief government administrator, Mesbaul Islam.

Cyclones and tropical storms are common in the region. In 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed at least 3,500 people in Bangladesh.