6 dead in the Bijli cyclone crisis.

The cyclone Bijli crossed the country on Saturday late night leaving at least six people dead, injuring dozens of others and damaging vast areas of farmland with Boro paddy.

A met office official said the cyclone had passed the southeastern coastlines on Saturday night with a weakened strength.

Cox\’s Bazar correspondent an official said the district suffered much due to the storm, which killed two children and a schoolteacher there.

One child was stampeded as people rushed to a cyclone shelter in Cox\’s Bazar sadar upazila while another killed in a treefall at Pekua. The schoolteacher died due to suffocation at Kutubdia Island.

According to the Red Crescent officials, two persons died at Banskhali in Chittagong out of panic and another one died in Burichar of Hatia.

The Red Crescent officials said that said 3,23,280 people took shelters in cyclone shelter under a massive evacuation campaign.

An official of the Red Crescent\’s Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) said, people started returning home from early morning, as the cyclone weakened passed the country.

The local administration said the first cyclone of the season damaged thousands of mud built and thatched houses and cropland with Boro paddy, uprooted trees, and knocked out power and telephone lines. The major victims of the storm were the salt traders, as salt-beds were damaged by storm wave.

Some fishing trawlers were also damaged during the storm, as thousands of trawler were anchored around the coastline.

Some parts of Cox\’s Bazar and Chottagong were out of touch, as these areas were without power and telecommunication through out the night. The operation of chittagong port was closed, people were evacuated and emergency services were on stand by.

Except some part of Chittagong and Cox\’s Bazar, most of the coastal areas remained unscathed. The southern coastal districts of Noakhali, Feni, Laxmipur and Bhola were also hit by strom.

Disaster Management officials in Dhaka said, concerned officials of the local administration were collecting data from field levels to assess the extent of damage and they were expected to prepare a primary report compiling the data by Sunday.

Chittagong Port official Syed Muhammad Farhaduddin said that the operation of the port started from Saturday morning and the jetties remained open.The Chittagong airport, which remained closed, started its operation from 8:00 am of yesterday.

Abdul Mannan, official of met office said the depression was still packing moderate winds, which caused the sea to be rough near the Chittagong and Cox\’s Bazar coastline.

The storm triggered high wave, which was six to eight feet higher than the normal tidal surge level.

Syedul Islam, duty officer of the disaster ministry control cell, said that necessary precautionary measures, evacuation of people from the danger zone and proper publicly minimised the causality.

The met office had earlier asked to keep hoisted danger signal no7 for Chittagong port and Cox\’s Bazar and Mongla ports had been asked to keep hoisted danger signal 6 and 5 respectively.

Authority asked fishing trawlers to stay in safe places, movement of long route passenger carrying launches and ships was stopped till further notice.

The district administration kept the law enforcement agencies alert for any emergency sensing the possibility of tidal surge.

The last major cyclone to hit Bangladesh was Sidr\’ in November 2007. it left a death toll of around 3,000 in its wake. A devastating cyclone in April 1991 claimed the lives of nearly 140,000 people.