Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review
Deadly Bangladesh cyclone one of longest seen, say weather experts
Bangladeshi weather experts said yesterday that a deadly cyclone that carved a swath of destruction was one of the quickest-forming and longestlasting they’d experienced, blaming climate change for the shift.
Cyclone Remal, which made landfall in low-lying Bangladesh and neighboring India on May 26 evening with fierce gales and crashing waves, left at least 38 people dead, destroyed thousands of homes, smashed seawalls and flooded cities across the two countries.
The toll includes 12 workers who died yesterday when a quarry collapsed in India’s Mizoram state, which the government attributed to torrential rains as the storm progressed inland.
“In terms of its land duration, it is one of the longest in the country’s history,” Azizur Rahman, director of the staterun Bangladesh Meteorological Department told AFP, adding it had battered the country for more than 36 hours.
In contrast, Cyclone Aila, which hammered Bangladesh in 2009, lasted around 34 hours.
Cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh in recent decades, and the number of superstorms hitting its densely populated coast has increased sharply, from one a year to as many as three, due to the impact of climate change.
Slow-moving and longerlasting storms bring greater destruction.
Rahman said the cyclone triggered massive rains, with some cities receiving at least 200 millimeters.
Storm surges breached multiple embankments, meaning seawater flooded into farmland, damaged freshwater fish farms common along the coast, or corrupted drinking water.
Bangladesh’s state minister for disaster, Mohibbur Rahman, said 3.75 million people had been affected by the cyclone, more than 35,000 homes were destroyed, and another 115,000 damaged.