Cyclone rips through coastal region: 11 killed

The cyclonic storm Reshmi ripped through southern and southeastern parts of the country in the early hours of yesterday leaving at least 11 people killed, many fishermen missing and hundreds of mud houses damaged.
The tropical storm attaining a speed of 50 mile per hour lashed the Khulna-Barisal region damaging crops on vast areas of land, uprooting numerous trees, electrical and telephone poles, officials said.
Offshore islands and coastal areas were swept by a tidal surge of up to two meters above normal, but details of casualties were yet to be available.
A woman named Hazera Begum (58) of Char Kukrimukri union and a minor girl named Rupa Begum (7) of Doulot Khan were killed by house collapse in Bhola.
About 2,000 mud houses were destroyed while many fishing trawlers with fishermen missing, district administration said on the basis of its preliminary estimate.
Three other persons died in Barisal and Shariatpur.
Officials said thousands of people were evacuated to shelters after the authorities issued storm warning.
"The storm turned into a land depression and started weakening gradually," a senior official of the Meteorological Department said.
An international cricket test match, scheduled to be held in the capital yesterday, was abandoned for the third consecutive day due to rain.
In Bagerhat, some 5,000 thatched houses were damaged and 15 fishing trawlers capsized in the Bay leaving more than 50 fishermen missing.
Acting Chairman of Mongla Sea Port Lutfor Rahman said loading and unloading of goods from cargo ships came to a halt since Sunday morning.
Moving northeast, Reshmi weakened into a land depression over Faridpur, Madaripur, Chandpur, Dhaka and adjoining areas heading further inland, weather office said in a special bulletin.
The storm began crossing the coast near Patharghata with wind speed of 60-80km/h, in the early hours of Monday. Mongla seaport and adjoining coastal areas were advised to hoist danger signal 7 in an early morning weather bulletin. As the storm weakened, moving inland, they were advised to lower the danger signal and hoist local cautionary signal 3.
Chittagong and Cox's Bazar seaports were also advised to lower their earlier danger signal 6, and hoist cautionary signal 3. Chittagong port resumed operations from Monday morning.
Patuakahli witnessed driving rain with cold wind. Ferry movement on all inland routes was cancelled. As many as 6,000 houses were damaged at several upazilas and a number of fishermen were missing. Many people were seen heading toward cyclone centres.
In Barisal, strong winds caused damage to homes, and the bodies of two storm victims were recovered Monday morning. Thousands took cover in cyclone shelters overnight. The storm damaged 30 percent Aman crops in the district, according to an agriculture official.
Shariatpur correspondent confirmed one person dead and many people injured after the cyclone hit on Monday morning. Some 80 percent crops were damaged during the time, officials said.
Reporters from Chittagong said authorities allowed ship movement in the port after the danger signal was lowered to local cautionary signal 3. The district was experiencing sporadic rain since morning.
Munshiganj correspondent said ferry movement remained halted for 11 hours, and resuming from 11 am on Monday.
Chandpur and Khulna correspondents said thousands of homes and trees were damaged by the storm.
Our Barisal Correspondent adds: Mushfiq Ahmed Shamim, deputy commissioner of Barisal, said district administration sanctioned emergency food relief of five tons for each of the five affected upazilas of the district.
Divisional Commissioner and Agriculture extension department officials of Barisal region said the cyclone and rainfall would damage 30% Aman crop in severely affected areas and may increase if water logging continues for some days on the fields. Seedlings of winter vegetables at some places in the region would be affected, according to them.
Intense publicity by the personnel of the Cyclone Preparedness Programme and Barisal Red Crescent Society succeeded in motivating a large number of people this time to seek refuge in cyclone shelter much ahead of the impending cyclone, locals said.
According to our Chittagong Correspondent: Though the cyclone passed over southwestern coast by morning yesterday its influence lasted in the port city and its adjacent areas until the sunset.
Light to moderate showers accompanied with gusty and squally wind continued in the region for whole day with a number of pauses.
Local weather office recorded 82.3 mm of rainfall over the last 24 hours ended 6:00 p.m. yesterday. The weathermen also predicted dull and wet weather for today.
Normal life was disrupted to a large extent following stormy wind coupled with heavy shower. Majority of the city's educational institutes could not function while trade and commerce suffered an extremely dull day because of inclement weather.
Some of the city's low lying areas experienced flash flood mainly because of the high tides under the influence of the storm and the heavy rainfall.
Seedlings of the winter vegetables mainly at the green bowls - Hathazari, Nazirhat, Dohazari, Fauzdarhat, Barabkund, Sitakund, Mirsarai and Baraiarhat - were washed away by the heavy shower apart from destroying standing Boro crop on a large area.
Radio Control of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) confirmed no incident in the Bay during the cyclone .
The Air Traffic Control tower of Shah Amanat International Airport (SAIA) said that six domestic flights of three different private airlines had been cancelled following the inclement weather.