Cyclone Mora claims 7 lives in Bangladesh
31 May 2017 6:57 PM IST
Cyclone Mora left at least seven people dead and damaged nearly 60,000 houses, displacing around 56,000 families when it hit Bangladesh a day ago, officials said on Wednesday.
Four people were killed and 60 were injured on Tuesday in the Cox Bazar district, while two others were killed in Rangamati and one in Bhola district, Efe news quoted Bangladesh's Disaster Management Department spokesperson Naznin Shamina as saying.
According to Shamina, the cyclone caused substantial damage to private property with at least 19,768 houses seriously damaged and 38,112 partially, particularly in Cox Bazar and Chittagong districts.
Two million people were evacuated before the cyclone made landfall, out of which 500,000 were moved to 3,800 cyclone shelters.
Bangladesh's Cyclone Preparedness programme head had earlier told EFE that 56,000 volunteers had helped in the evacuation in 18 coastal districts of the country.
Around 33,000 Rohingya refugees, who live in two camps in Bangladesh bordering Myanmar in the south-east where the cyclone had made landfall, were among the worst affected.
Indian Navy rescues people in cyclone-hit Bangladesh
After Sri Lanka, the Indian Navy has rushed two ships for relief and rescue operations in cyclone-hit Bangladesh, Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said on Wednesday.
INS Sumitra is already deployed and has rescued 27 Bangladeshis who were washed off the shore by the cyclone. Another ship with relief material was on its way.
"In the south of Sri Lanka, we have two ships. Today (Wednesday) morning, we received a request from Bangladesh," Admiral Lanba said at the sidelines of a seminar here.
"We had one ship deployed off the coast of Bangladesh. She is already involved in the rescue of people... The second ship has sailed from Visakhapatnam with relief material," he added.
Admiral Lanba said the Indian Navy was ready to handle all kinds of disaster response in the Indian Ocean Region.
"As severe weather phenomena are only to increase, each ship has an intrinsic capability of HADR (high availability disaster recovery). We are prepared for it.
"It will cover the wider Indian Ocean, but there is a timeline within which you have to reach," he said.
The search and rescue operation in Bangladesh is on in the south of Chittagong. Cyclone Mora had earlier caused havoc in Sri Lanka, killing at least 180.
"One of the rescued men had no pulse or heartbeat but was revived and is currently on ventilator on board the ship," a Navy official said.
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