Bangladesh has readied nearly 4,000 shelters equipped with adequate dry food supplies and water as it prepares for severe cyclonic storm 'Remal' forecast to make landfall on Sunday evening with a potential high tidal surge and heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of Satkhira and Cox's Bazar, media reports said on Saturday.
Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) is expected to issue a 'great danger' signal number 10 between 12 midnight and 1:00 am Sunday.
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), the state-owned news agency, quoted a special bulletin that said maritime ports of Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Mongla and Payra have been advised to hoist local cautionary signal number three in the wake of the deep depression over the Bay of Bengal.
This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal in this pre-monsoon season and will be named Remal (meaning sand in Arabic), according to a system of naming cyclones in the Indian Ocean region.
State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Md Mohibur Rahman told a press conference here that nearly 4,000 shelter centres have been readied in the coastal districts, equipped with adequate dry food supplies.
“We have 80,000 volunteers ready to tackle the situation and all necessary preparations have been made,” Rahman was quoted as saying by The Daily Star newspaper.
The state minister also warned that parts of Satkhira and Cox's Bazar could be significantly impacted by Remal, with a potential 7-10 feet high tidal surge, heavy rainfall, and landslides in the hilly areas of Chattogram, the news portal said.
A special bulletin by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday afternoon said the deep depression over the east-central Bay of Bengal lay centred about 420 km south of Khepupara (Bangladesh) and about 420 km south-southeast of Sagar Islands (West Bengal, India).
“It is very likely to continue to move nearly northwards and intensify into a Cyclonic Storm over east-central & adjoining north Bay of Bengal around May 25 evening. Continuing to move further northwards, it would intensify into a Severe Cyclonic Storm by May 26 morning and cross Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal coasts between Sagar Island and Khepupara by May 26 midnight as a Severe Cyclonic Storm with a wind speed of 110-120 kmph gusting to 135 kmph,” it said.
