An intensifying cyclone yesterday churned north toward Bangladesh after heavy rain in Sri Lanka and thunderstorms in eastern India killed almost 200 people, with more torrential downpours forecast.
Bangladesh, hit by cyclones every year, warned that some low-lying coastal areas were “likely to be inundated by a storm surge of four to five feet [1.2m to 1.5m]” above normal and raised the storm danger signal, on a scale of one to 10, to seven.
Cyclone Mora was expected to make landfall this morning.
Photo: AFP
Floods and landslides in tropical Sri Lanka, have killed at least 169 people in recent days, authorities said, with 24 killed in storms in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, either by lightning strikes or under collapsed village huts.
India warned of heavy rain in the northeastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as Mora moved further up the Bay of Bengal.
Floods reached roof level and cut off access to many rural Sri Lankan villages, disrupting life for half a million people, many of them workers on rubber plantations, officials said.
Photo: Reuters
Villagers in Agalawatte, in a key rubber-growing area 74km southeast of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, said they were losing hope of water levels falling soon after the heaviest rain since 2003.
Fifty-three villagers died and 58 were missing.
“All access to our village is cut off. A landslide took place inside the village and several houses are buried,” Mohomed Abdulla, 46, said.
Some areas in the southern coastal district of Galle, popular with foreign tourists, have not received relief due to lack of access.
“My entire village is cut off and nobody can come to this village,” C.M. Chandrapla, 54, said by telephone from the village of Neluwa.
“There have been no supplies for the past two days. Water has gone above three-storey buildings and people survive by running to higher ground,” he said.
However, Sri Lanka’s military yesterday said a lull in the torrential monsoon rains had allowed it to deploy aircraft, boats and ground troops to evacuate people from flooded areas, and deliver food and other essentials.
About 102 people were still listed missing yesterday.
The meteorology department forecast torrential rains over the next 36 hours.
Residents in seven densely populated districts in the south and center of Sri Lanka were asked to move away from unstable slopes in case of further landslides.
The government said floodwaters were beginning to recede in some areas yesterday, but some low-lying areas remained heavily inundated.
All schools in flood-hit areas, including the capital, Colombo, are to be closed for a week, it said.
In Bangladesh, authorities are to relocate thousands from coastal areas before Mora hits, officials said.
About 10 million of Bangladesh’s population of 160 million live in low-lying coastal areas.
“We have taken all sorts of steps to minimize any losses, including moving people away from the most vulnerable areas,” Kazi Adbur Rahman, a senior government official in Cox’s Bazaar, said by telephone.
Additional reporting by AFP
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