Villagers Emerge To Find Destruction 67 Dead, 800,000 Homeless After Cyclone Bashes Bangladesh Coast

Across Bangladesh’s southeast coast, hundreds of thousands of villagers emerged from storm shelters Tuesday to find their homes gone and their belongings strewn across ruined crops.

Rescuers reported only 67 deaths from Monday’s and Tuesday’s cyclone, which was fully as powerful as a cyclone that killed 139,000 Bangladeshis in 1991. The comparatively low death toll was a triumph for government measures since then - including building the concrete shelters.

A tornado struck Maheshkhali Island, seven miles from the port of Cox’s Bazar, about six hours after the cyclone fizzled out, said Gulam Rabbani of the Cyclone Preparedness Center in Chittagong. Seven people were crushed to death in their homes, he said.

State-run television said 7,000 people were injured in the storm, which buffeted the coast for more than 24 hours with winds of up to 125 mph. Rescuers estimated the number of destroyed houses at 200,000 and the number of people homeless at 800,000.

Authorities say thousands of lives were saved by the 1,200 shelters and by an early warning system that used state broadcasting services and more than 30,000 volunteers to get people to the shelters.

Luck also played a role.

“The cyclone hit us when the sea was at low tide. And that’s one of the main factors that kept the casualties low,” said Anu Sayeed, a volunteer with the Red Crescent, the Islamic world’s version of the Red Cross.

Villagers stumbled from the shelters after daybreak Tuesday, offering prayers of thanks.

“We are happy to have survived, but the cyclone has left us homeless,” said Mohammad Ali, a fisherman in the village of Ramgati, 125 miles southeast of the capital, Dhaka.

His wife, Rahima Khatoon, rummaged through the heap of mud and straw that once was the family’s house. Their two daughters, aged 6 and 5, cried for food.

“How can I get food for you? Don’t you see we have no rice nor any pot to cook the food?” Khatoon demanded of the hungry girls.

Authorities said most of the victims were killed by tin roofing sent flying by the storm or by collapsing buildings.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: A DEADLY REGION More than 3 million people live in storm-buffeted areas along the 250-mile coast. Since 1970, cyclones in the area have killed 1.5 million people.