Bangladesh evacuates 1 mln people ahead of storm
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E-mail Xinhua, May 16, 2013
Bangladesh Wednesday ordered evacuation of about one million people from its coastlines as the cyclonic storm "Mahasen" in the Bay of Bengal is poised to cross the country's southern coast in the early hours of Thursday.
Officials say evacuations in 15 coastal districts including Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar began Wednesday shortly after Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) raised its warning level as the storm continued to approach, bringing with lashing rains and strong winds to the country's southern coast, home to millions of poverty-ridden people.
In its latest special bulletin, BMD said the cyclone, at about 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, was centered about 755 km southwest of the country's premier Chittagong seaport, some 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka, 695 km southwest of Cox's Bazaar seaport, about 391 km southeast of Dhaka, and 635 km south southwest of Mongla port, about 178 km south of Dhaka.
"We've directed local authorities to launch an evacuation of people living in risky areas at the shoreline in view of the advancement of the storm," Shahin Sultana who is in-charge of the control room at Bangladesh's National Disaster Response Coordination Center (NDRCC) told Xinhua.
The cyclonic storm is likely to intensify further and move in a north-northeasterly direction and may cross Khepupara under Bangladesh's Patuakhali district and Teknaf under Cox's Baazar district's coast near Chittagong by early hours of Thursday, said the BMD's special bulletin.
The peripheral gusty or squally wind may affect coastal regions of Bangladesh from 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, it said and added that one third districts of Bangladesh are likely to experience harsh winds up to 90-100 kph with the passage of the storm.
Bangladesh's Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief had earlier said some 50,000 volunteers are get ready for emergency duties at any moment with support of all other government agencies.
"We're evacuating approximately 200,000 people from low-lying coastal areas," said Ruhul Ami, chief of administration in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazaar district, which is home to ramshackle camps housing thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees of Myanmar.
Meteorologist Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik told Xinhua that the cyclone, which already battered Sri Lanka's coastline and left 7 people dead, will likely make landfall somewhere near the Myanmar- Bangladesh border in the early hours of Thursday.
Abdul Mannan, Bangladesh's Chittagong district administration chief, said "In a grim situation we plan to evacuate 300,000 people. But initially by evening we'll evacuate at least 150,000 people."
The danger signal No. 7 has been sounded for all ports in Chittagong where fishing boats, trawlers and maritime vessels over the north bay have been advised to remain in shelter till further notice.
Officials say control room set up in the capital Dhaka was on constant touch with the local authorities where the voluntary groups joined hands with the government officials in carrying out the evacuation and salvage campaign.
Amitabh Sarkar, deputy commissioner or administration chief in Bangladesh's Patuakhali district, some 204 km south of capital Dhaka, said : "Over 100,000 people will be evacuated from the remote islands of the district by Wednesday evening."
Television footage showed widespread flooding in coastal areas of Cox's Bazaar, Chittagong and Patuakhali and 12 other districts where hundreds of thousands of people have also reportedly been evacuated from their homes.
Local administration was asked to remain alert with food and medicines. Officials say 1,327 medical teams had been mobilized to deal with the impact of the cyclone and leave had been cancelled for all government officials and employees.
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