Powerful cyclone hits Bangladesh

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Buzz Mills

Buzz Mills

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Powerful cyclone hits Bangladesh

KHULNA, Bangladesh - A powerful cyclone packing 149 mph winds slammed into Bangladesh on Thursday night, tearing down flimsy houses, toppling trees and power poles, and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in the low-lying nation.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr swept in from the Bay of Bengal, buffeting southwestern coastal areas within a 155-mile radius of its eye with heavy rain and storm surges predicted to reach 20 feet high. Sidr's eye crossed the Khulna-Barisal coast near the Sundarbans mangrove forests around 9:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. EST), the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said. It was centered over the Baleshwar River in Barguna district. In the coastal districts of Bagerhat, Barisal and Bhola, residents said the storm flattened thousands of flimsy straw and mud huts, and uprooted trees and electric poles. "We sitting out the storm by candlelight," resident Bishnu Prashad said by phone from Bagerhat.

At least 620,000 people had moved into official shelters and 3.2 million people were expected to be evacuated in all, said Ali Imam Majumder, a senior government official in Dhaka. No casualties were immediately reported, but rescue teams were on standby, forest official Mozharul Islam said in Khuln. Communications with remote forest areas and offshore islands were temporarily cut off. "We have taken all precautions," Majumder said.

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation, is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that cause huge losses of life and property. The coastal area bordering eastern India is famous for the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, a world heritage site that is home to rare Royal Bengal Tigers. The Meteorological Department had put the country's three major maritime ports — Chittagong, Mongla and Cox's Bazar — on the highest level of alert.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071115/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone
 
My goodness, what's with all the natural disasters?

Chile's earthquakes, now this in Bangladesh....
 
MagicRose99 said:
Mother Nature must be irate at something/someone... :eek:
Click to expand...
Remember, back in the good old days, before the internet, and everybody, and their brother, having telecommunications, we never heard about these things, so it was almost like they didn't happen.

It was a lot easier to be in a serene peaceful state of mind, back then. Here we are; we have the War In Iraq, the War In Afghanistan, Dubya and Dick trying to start WW3, beginning with Iran, being overrun with 20-30 million illegal immigrants, major crimes on the increase, global warming, droughts in the Southeastern U.S., and now major earthquakes in Chile, and a Category 4 Cyclone in Bangladesh, and now Al Sharpton planning a march on Washington, with his Jen6 entourage. I think the illegal immigrants have been getting too much press; Al wants to say, "here we are America, your black citizens, and there's an election coming, and we can legally vote." Geez, where do we get off.......
 
"Remember, back in the good old days, before the internet, and everybody, and their brother, having telecommunications, we never heard about these things, so it was almost like they didn't happen."

That's exactly it Buzz,it's not that crazy things weren't happening before,we just didn't hear about it all the time.

I have to admit,right or wrong,sometimes I grapple with the idea of which way was better...
 
capps said:
"Remember, back in the good old days, before the internet, and everybody, and their brother, having telecommunications, we never heard about these things, so it was almost like they didn't happen."

That's exactly it Buzz,it's not that crazy things weren't happening before,we just didn't hear about it all the time.

I have to admit,right or wrong,sometimes I grapple with the idea of which way was better...
Click to expand...
What happened to the good old days of the quiet Sunday picnic?? Now it just seems like noise, noise, and more noise. Noise used to take 3-4 days to get out of the backwoods, and then a day, or two, to get across the U.S. Now, 10-15 minutes after an explosion, we're flying ovehead, or there is always a freeway chase down in L.A.
 
My parents watched the news every night. They liked the Huntley-Brinkley report back in the old days of NBC and didn't trust Walter Cronkite until H-B went off the air.

We learned about what had happened in the world at dinner time, sometimes not until the day afterwards. It seemed more remote then, not so dangerous. Now you have live reporting minutes or hours after a disaster complete with video footage from cellphones and live eyewitness accounts.

But sometimes I wish we still lived in the pre-internet days too. NBC news always ended with "Goodnight Chet." "Goodnight David." It was a comforting feeling, like you knew your life was going to be okay.
 
It's true,it seems like we never have a chance to slow down and be calm for a little while anymore.
 
Didn't trust Walter Cronkite??!! oh my god,say it ain't so!! lol.
 
Report: Bangladesh cyclone kills 425

DHAKA, Bangladesh - A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh's coast with 140 mph winds killed at least 425 people before heading inland and losing strength, a local news agency said Friday.

The government, which has acknowledged problems accounting for the dead, has a far lower toll from Tropical Cyclone Sidr. The storm roared across the country's southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves, leveling homes and forcing the evacuation of 650,000 villagers, officials said.

Downpours and staggering winds also spawned a water surge 4 feet high that swept through low-lying areas and some offshore islands, leaving them under water, according to Nahid Sultana, an official at a cyclone control room in the capital, Dhaka.

Relief workers struggled Friday to bring aid to areas devastated by the initial impact of storm, even though Sidr had weakened into a tropical storm and was moving across the country to the northeast, with wind speed falling to 37 mph. The cyclone flattened thousands of flimsy huts, uprooted trees, electricity and telephone poles, and destroyed crops and fish farms in 15 coastal districts, local government officials and witnesses said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071116/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone
 
Bangladesh military hunts for survivors

DHAKA, Bangladesh - The official death toll from a cyclone that wreaked havoc on southwest Bangladesh reached 1,070 Saturday, while military helicopters and ships joined rescue and relief operations and aid workers on the ground struggled to reach victims.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr — the deadliest storm to hit the impoverished South Asian country in more than a decade — tore apart villages, severely disrupted power lines and forced more than a million coastal villagers to evacuate to government shelters.

Rescuers — some relying on the brute force of elephants — battled along roads that were washed out or blocked by debris to try delivering water and food to those stranded by flooding.

The Ministry of Disaster Management put the official death toll Saturday at 1,070, a figure it has struggled to compile due to disrupted power and communication lines. "The toll is rising fast, as we receive more information from outlying areas where telephone lines have been restored," said Mokhlesur Rahman, a ministry official in Dhaka, the capital. Of the evacuees who managed to return home Saturday, many found their straw and bamboo huts flattened. Some sought refuge with neighbors living in brick houses that withstood the storm, which struck with 150 mph winds on Thursday. "We survived, but what we need now is help to rebuild our homes," Chand Miah, a resident of Maran Char, a small island in Khulna district, told The Associated Press.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071117/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone
 
Bangladesh cyclone toll rises to 1,723

DHAKA, Bangladesh - The official death toll from a savage cyclone that wreaked havoc on southwest Bangladesh reached 1,723 Saturday — the deadliest storm to hit the country in a decade.

Military helicopters and ships joined rescue and relief operations and aid workers on the ground struggled to reach victims. Tropical Cyclone Sidr tore apart villages, severely disrupted power lines and forced more than a million coastal villagers to evacuate to government shelters.

The latest death figure tallied to 1,723, with 474 deaths reported from worst-hit Barguna district and 385 from neighboring Patuakhali, a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Moyeenullah Chowdhury, told reporters in the capital, Dhaka.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071117/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone
 
Over 2,200 die in Bangladesh cyclone

DHAKA, Bangladesh - The death toll from a cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, officials said Sunday, while rescuers struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields. The government deployed military helicopters, naval ships and thousands of troops to join international agencies and local officials in the rescue mission following Tropical Cyclone Sidr. The U.S. and other countries also offered assistance.

At least 2,206 people have died since the storm struck Bangladesh on Thursday, said Selina Shahid of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management. The toll could rise still higher as more information comes in from battered regions.

Disaster Management Secretary Aiyub Bhuiyan met Sunday with representatives from the United Nations and international aid groups to discuss the massive relief effort. "The donors wanted to know about our plan and how they can come forward to stand by the victims," Bhuiyan told reporters. "We have briefed them about what we need immediately."

Rescuers struggled to clear roads and get their vehicles through, but many found the way impassable. "We will try again ... on bicycles, and hire local country boats," M. Shakil Anwar of CARE said from the city of Khulna. At least 1.5 million coastal villagers had fled to shelters where they were given emergency rations, said senior government official Ali Imam Majumder in the capital, Dhaka.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071118/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone
 
Those numbers are so heartbreaking. :( It's worse knowing they don't have the equipment and technology to help rescue possible survivors more quickly.
 
Bangladesh cyclone death toll tops 3,100

BARGUNA, Bangladesh - The death toll from Thursday's cyclone in Bangladesh is now more than 3,100, and officials say that number could reach 10,000 once rescuers get to outlying islands. Rescuers are struggling to reach thousands of survivors, and relief items have been slow to reach many. Survivors grieved and buried their loved ones Monday as they waited for aid to arrive.

The death toll from the Thursday cyclone reached 3,113 after reports finally reached Dhaka from storm-ravaged areas which had been largely cut off because of washed-out roads and downed telephone lines, said Lt. Col. Main Ullah Chowdhury, a spokesman of the army coordinating the relief and rescue work.

In Galachipa, a fishing village along the coast in Patuakhali district, Dhalan Mridha and his family had ignored the high cyclone alert issued by authorities. "Nothing is going to happen. That was our first thought and we went to bed. Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our small hut was swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for shelter," said Mridha, a 45-year-old farm worker, weeping. On the way to a shelter, Mridha was separated from his wife, mother and two children. The next morning he found their bodies stuck in a battered bush along the coast.

The coast abounded with such grim tales following Tropical Cyclone Sidr � the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh in a decade. Many grieving families buried their loved ones in the same grave because no male member was available to dig them. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, warned the toll could hit 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying islands.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone
 
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, warned the toll could hit 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying islands.

I can't even fathom that number. :(

Thanks for the update, Buzz.
 
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