COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh May 16, 2013 (AP)
Cyclone Mahasen struck the southern coast of Bangladesh on Thursday, lashing remote fishing villages with heavy rain and fierce winds that flattened mud and straw huts and forced the evacuation of more than 1 million people.
The main section of the storm reached land Thursday and immediately began weakening, according to Mohammad Shah Alam, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. However, its forward movement was also slowing, meaning that towns in its path would have to weather the storm for longer, he said.
Even before the brunt of the storm hit, at least 18 deaths related to Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
The storm could bring life-threatening conditions to about 8.2 million people in Bangladesh, Myanmar and northeast India, according to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Danger was particularly high for tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people living in plastic-roofed tents and huts made of reeds in dozens of refugee camps along Myanmar's western coast.
Driven from their homes by violence, members of the Muslim minority group refused to follow evacuation orders. Many distrust officials in the majority-Buddhist country, where Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination.
U.N. officials, hoping they would inspire greater trust, fanned out across the area to encourage people to leave.
APTOPIX Myanmar Asia Cyclone.JPEG
Early Thursday, the cyclone battered the southern Bangladesh fishing village of Khepurpara along the Bay of Bengal with 100 kph (62 mph) winds and was heading east toward the city of Chittagong and the seafront resort town of Cox's Bazar. River ferries and boat service were suspended, and scores of factories near the choppy Bay of Bengal were closed. The military said it was keeping 22 navy ships and 19 Air Force helicopters at the ready.
Tens of thousands of people fled their shanty homes along the coast and packed into cyclone shelters, schools, government office buildings and some of the 300 hotels in Cox's Bazar to wait out the storm. Some brought their livestock, which took shelter outside.
"We have seen such a disaster before," said Mohammad Abu Taleb, who shut down his convenience shop in the city of 200,000. "It's better to stay home. I'm not taking any chance."
A 1991 cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh from the Bay of Bengal killed an estimated 139,000 people and left millions homeless. In 2008, Myanmar's southern delta was devastated Cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people.
Both those cyclones were much more powerful than Cyclone Mahasen, which is rated Category 1 — the weakest level. It hit land with maximum wind speeds of about 100 kph (62 mph) and quickly weakened to 90 kph (56 mph), said Alam, of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
Heavy rain and storm surge could prove deadlier than the wind. Bangladesh's meteorological office said the cyclone was moving so slowly it may take a whole day for it to pass the Bangladesh coast.
In Cox's Bazar, local government administrator Ruhul Amin turned his own three-story office building into a shelter for about 400 people as intermittent rains and gusty winds hit.
Huddling with the crowd, evacuee Mohammad Tayebullah said, "Each time there is a cyclone warning we come to the town for shelter. This has become part of our life."
Credit & Copy From; http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cyclone-mahasen-batters-bangladesh-million-flee-19190676#.UZSe08rSmSA
