Cyclone kills 24, displaces thousands in Bangladesh

Bangladeshi villagers make their way to shelter in Cox's Bazar on May 21, 2016, as Cyclone Roanu approached. Bangladesh’s disaster management chief said thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed and 24 people had been killed in total, up from 23 recorded on Saturday. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Authorities evacuated more than 500,000 people to shelters before the cyclone hit with winds of up to 88 kilometres. They later weakened.
  • Bangladesh’s disaster management chief said thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed and 24 people had been killed in total, up from 23 recorded on Saturday.

DHAKA

Thousands of Bangladeshis were left homeless when Cyclone Roanu battered the impoverished southern coastal region, ripping apart houses and killing at least 24 people.

The storm ploughed through low-lying villages in the Chittagong and Barisal regions, where residents described seeing metres-high walls of water.

Authorities evacuated more than 500,000 people to shelters before the cyclone hit with winds of up to 88 kilometres. They later weakened.

But officials said thousands of others along the coast were left stranded in their homes as sea water ripped through dykes and flooded dozens of villages.

“Before we could realise, the whole village was washed away by a huge wall of water,” Abu Siddique, a councillor from Banshkhali district in Chittagong, said.

“It came at least six hours early, giving the villagers no time to rush to cyclone shelters. Authorities said the storm surge would be four-feet high but in some places the water that hit our shore was as high as 10 feet.”

Bangladesh’s disaster management chief said thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed and 24 people had been killed in total, up from 23 recorded on Saturday.

About half of those who died were from the Chittagong region, which bore the brunt of the storm, Disaster Management Department head Reaz Ahmed said.

“Some 80,000 tin-and-mud-built homes were damaged by the storm in the coastal regions including 23,000 homes which were knocked down,” he said.

Authorities were sending relief supplies, including rice and other dry food, to affected areas where many poor residents already have very little and scratch a living as small fishermen or farmers.

Television footage showed villagers sitting helplessly in front of their flattened houses.

“In a moment my home was destroyed,” a villager on Bhola island said.