Dhaka/New Delhi, May 27 (EFE).- At least 10 people were killed in Bangladesh and neighboring India due to Cyclone Remal, which began to weaken on Monday after battering areas on the coastline of the Bay of Bengal overnight, leading to the evacuation of almost 1 million people.
Authorities in Bangladesh confirmed the deaths of at least nine people since the cyclone made landfall on Sunday evening.
“Seven people died in our three districts. Three died in Barishal and Bhola districts, all under falling houses or trees. One man died yesterday in Patuakhali during the evacuation process,” said Shawkat Ali, divisional commissioner of southwest Barishal Division, told EFE.
Police and local administration confirmed two more deaths in western Satkhira district and Chittagong city.
Mizanur Rahman, director general of Bangladesh’s Disaster Management Department, told EFE that the primary information that they received suggested a huge effect of the cyclone.
“The tidal surge that accompanied the cyclone overflowed the dams, leaving many areas under water. Dams also collapsed in some areas. We are trying to put the information together,” he said.
Mohammad Halimuzzaman, an official at the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board, said they kept the electricity supply suspended in many areas as a precaution.
“It is still raining in many areas. So, the power supply could not be fully restored yet,” he said.
The first tropical cyclone of the year in the Bay of Bengal made landfall in Khepupara area, near the border with India’s West Bengal, around 6pm on Sunday, packed with strong winds.
The maximum sustained wind speed within 64 kilometers (40 miles) of the cyclone center was 90 kph, which rose to 120 kph gusts or squalls, the BMD said in its earlier bulletins, predicting a wind-driven tidal surge of 8-12 feet (2.4-3.5m) above normal.
“It took a long hour to pass. In the morning, it had turned into a depression. We have already asked maritime ports to lower their danger signals,” Bazlur Rashid, a meteorologist at the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told EFE.
The effects of the cyclone were also notable in India’s West Bengal, where authorities confirmed the death of one person due to the storm.
Images released by the Indian news agency PTI show dozens of trees uprooted in Calcutta and other districts of the state, as well as flooded roads and the walls of some houses blown down by the wind.
Bangladesh authorities said around 800,000 people had been evacuated to various shelters before the cyclone made landfall. More than 100,000 people were also evacuated in India, according to local media.
The Bay of Bengal is prone to cyclones, which occur mostly between April and May, and October and November. EFE
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