Cyclone and early warning in Bangladesh - November 19, 2007
The death toll from Bangladesh's worst cyclone in a decade is rising and rising. Soon after the cyclone hit last Thursday the death toll was listed as hundreds (see for example BBC). By this weekend the Guardian’s South Asia correspondent had the ministry of food and disaster management confirming 2,408 dead, and one expert estimating a final toll of 10,000 to 15,000. News from Bangladesh (online only) is following reports as they come out.
The story is tragic, but most press reports note that the government’s early warning programme saved a vast number of lives. About 1.5 million people on the coast were able to flee to shelters, reports the Guardian. The toll does indeed seem lower than it might have been; in 1991, more than 130,000 people died in a storm of similar size and strength.
It isn’t clear how much warning was given in this case, or how the warnings were issued; there are some specifics on the warning system generally on the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) website. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department doesn’t say much about their Storm Warning Center (SWC), though they seem to be in charge. It is clear that some preparations were being made well in advance: this UN press release mentions that some 2,000 shelters had been built specifically for those fleeing this cyclone. But CNN says the storm made landfall earlier than meteorologists had predicted, which may have caused additional casualties.
