Three people have died and six others injured on Sunday after severe cyclonic storm ‘Bulbul‘ made landfall in Bangladesh’s western Khulna and southern Patuakhali districts.
The Bangladesh authorities have evacuated more than two million people in view of the cyclonic storm.
“So far we have received information on three deaths. They all died due to falling trees,” health emergency operation control room spokesperson Enayet Hussain said.
On the other hand, a woman died and two men injured in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal due to falling of trees, EFE news reported.
The police control room also reported that over the weekend they had established 69 shelters to accommodate almost 120,000 people from various districts of the state.
In Bangladesh, the number of evacuees exceeded 2.1 million, although some of them began returning to their homes, according to disaster management ministry secretary Shah Kamal.
“It’s too early to say how much damage the storm caused. We have just started receiving information from different districts. As of now, my impression is that some 4,000 houses were damaged,” he said.
In a special morning bulletin, the Bangladesh meteorological department said Bulbul “moved slowly north-westwards, weakened further into a deep depression and lies over Bagerhat, Barishal and Patuakhali (coastal) regions.”
The meteorological department maintained active rain alerts in the state of West Bengal, and in the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, all bordering Bangladesh.
It also warned of sustained winds of 85 kilometres per hour with gusts of 95 kph on the coast of Bangladesh and in the north of the Bay of Bengal, advising fishermen to leave their boats in port.
Police said in Bangladesh, one of the worst-hit areas was Dakop in Khulna district, where the storm hit early in the morning and an elderly woman died in a remote place surrounded by river as a tree fell on her house.
Islam added that a primary assessment recorded 1,753 collapsed houses, with more than 5,000 families suffering other damages in the storm that lashed the area for about seven hours.
Ahead of the landfall on Saturday night, the department had advised the maritime ports of Mongla and Payra to hoist ‘Great Danger Signal No. 10’.