Bangladesh: Powerful Cyclone Forces Hundreds of Thousands of Evacuations

Dhaka – Hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh are being evacuated in coastal areas as a powerful cyclone approaches and is expected to make landfall early Tuesday, authorities said.

Cyclone “Sitrang” is expected to hit the coastal city of Khepupara in the south of the country Tuesday morning, according to the weather bureau.

A three-meter-high storm surge could occur and flood a large area of low-lying land along Bangladesh’s coastline, where millions of people live, authorities said. “Evacuation operations have already begun,” government secretary for disaster management Kamrul Hasan told reporters.

About 400,000 people from vulnerable villages and coastal areas will be evacuated to shelters, said government officials from the coastal districts of Patuakhali, Bhola, Barguna and Jhalakathi.

Bangladeshi authorities have also dispatched dry food to coastal districts and boosted hospital teams in Bhashan Char Island in the Bay of Bengal, home to some 33,000 Rohingya refugees.

Bangladesh, a country of about 170 million people, has been ranked among the countries most affected by extreme weather events since the turn of the century, according to the UN.