At least 38 people were killed when Cyclone Remal made landfall in low-lying Bangladesh and neighbouring India on Sunday night. It wrecked thousands of houses, broke seawalls, and flooded towns in both nations.
Tuesday, weather specialists in Bangladesh claimed that a devastating cyclone that wreaked havoc was one of the longest-lasting and fastest-forming storms they had ever seen, and they attributed the development to climate change.
At least 38 people were killed when Cyclone Remal made landfall in low-lying Bangladesh and neighbouring India on Sunday night. It wrecked thousands of houses, broke seawalls, and flooded towns in both nations.
Twelve labourers lost their lives on Tuesday in the Indian state of Mizoram when a quarry collapsed. The authorities ascribed the tragedy to the heavy rains that fell as the storm moved inland.
Director of the government-run Bangladesh Meteorological Department Azizur Rahman told AFP that the storm had pounded the nation for more than 36 hours and that it was "one of the longest in the country's history in terms of land duration." Cyclone Aila, on the other hand, lasted around 34 hours and devastated Bangladesh in 2009.
Bangladesh has suffered hundreds of thousands of fatal cyclones in recent decades, and the country's heavily populated coast now experiences up to three superstorms year as a result of climate change.
Storms that are slower moving and persist longer do more damage.
Asma Khatun, an 80-year-old widow who resides in the severely damaged coastal town of Patuakhali, Bangladesh, with her son, a fisherman, stated, "I've seen many storms in my life, but nothing like this cyclone."
"The storm came and went before, but it doesn't appear to be going away right now. For days, the relentless rain and strong wind left us stranded. According to Rahman, the storm caused heavy rainfall, with at least 200 millimetres (7.9 inches) falling in several places.
Storm surges caused several embankments to collapse, flooding fields, causing damage to freshwater fish farms that are widespread along the coast, or contaminating drinking water. According to Mohibbur Rahman, Bangladesh's state minister for disasters, the cyclone had affected 3.75 million people.
With her tin roof torn off, Setara Begum, 75, looked around her destroyed home and remarked, "We don't know where to go."
The cyclone formed faster than nearly any other cyclone that meteorologist Rahman has tracked in recent decades. "Of course, quick cyclone formation and the long duration of cyclones are due to the impact of climate change," Rahman stated.
"It took three days for the low pressure in the Bay of Bengal to intensify into a powerful cyclone. It's the fastest formation of a cyclone from low pressure I've ever witnessed," he said. "A cyclone typically forms seven to eight days after it forms in the south and southwest of the Bay of Bengal.
Despite the fact that experts claim that climate change is causing more storms, improved forecasting and more efficient evacuation preparation have significantly decreased the number of fatalities. A million or more people in Bangladesh and adjacent India fled interior in search of safety, while many others chose to remain in their houses in order to protect them.
According to the disaster management office and police, who announced on Tuesday the additional fatalities of a husband and wife, "crushed under stacks of bricks" when their house collapsed, Cyclone Remal killed at least 17 people in Bangladesh. A few people drowned. Others died as a result of fallen objects, falling trees, or falling power wires electrocuting them.
The Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board's head engineer, Biswanath Sikder, said that thousands of electricity poles had been destroyed and that power was down in a significant portion of the country.
Sikder informed AFP that "more than 20 million people are without electricity."
According to the most recent counts on Tuesday, there were 21 deaths across India, including 8 in West Bengal, 1 in Assam, and 12 quarry workers in Mizoram.
However, the vast mangrove forest known as the Sundarbans, which spans both Bangladesh and India and is located where the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers converge with the sea, mitigated the worst effects, according to the state meteorological department of Bangladesh. The vital coastal trees near saltwater aid in reducing the intensity of these storms. Read more about Bangladesh was battered by Cyclone Remal
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