Mother Nature strikes again. This time with through a tropical cyclone. Here is info about it.
Tropical Cyclone Mahasen jogged northward Thursday prior to striking the coast of Bangladesh, averting the widespread disaster that government authorities had prepared for.
Still, at least 7 people were killed, thousands of thatched houses were damaged and trees uprooted, the state news agency said.
"The situation is turning normal and the people have started returning home after some 200,000 people took overnight refuge at cyclone shelters at Barisal Division," divisional commissioner of Barisal Mohammad Nurul Amin told Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).
"The damage was not that much what we feared, and people who took shelters have already started moving to their houses as the weather is becoming almost normal," he said.
Bangladeshi authorities had relocated hundreds of thousands of people in vulnerable areas to safer ground ahead of the storm's arrival.
The storm's strongest gusts reached 90 kph (56 mph), weaker than a hurricane, BSS said.
Authorities had suspended port activities at Chittagong, a major transport and commercial hub, and canceled all flights to and from the city's airport.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had warned that Mahasen could put millions of people in the surrounding region at risk.
Bangladeshi authorities relocated at least half a million people from the coastal districts of southeastern Bangladesh, the top administrative officer of Chittagong Division said.
The OCHA put the number of people ordered to relocate by the Bangladeshi government at 1 million nationwide.