More than a million people were evacuated from the coasts of Bangladesh and eastern India today with a cyclone with wind-speeds of up to 140mph due to make land-fall, destroying houses, crops and trees.
In an echo of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, meteorologists warned tidal surges of up 20ft could cause devastating flooding across low-lying areas of Bangladesh and the Sunderbans mangrove forest of India’s West Bengal state.
The mass evacuation is intended to prevent the huge loss of life seen during the Bengal cyclones of 1970 and 1991 which killed 500,000 and 143,000 people respectively.
More than 10 million people were estimated to be in the path of Cyclone Sidr which came spiralling in from the Bay Bengal, gathering force as night fell across the region.
Tens of thousands of people were reported to be fleeing inland in search of shelter, taking only their cattle, food supplies and a few portable possessions along with them.
In the most rural areas, where television and radio was not available, police and local volunteers drove from village to village in cars and auto-rickshaws using megaphones to alert the people to the approaching storm.
Telegraph.co.uk
Another major disaster in the making.
Clearly, increasing world population makes flood plains that were once uninhabited, now highly vulnerable settlements. However, the extreme strength of winds, combined with the tremendous height of tidal surges makes these very dangerous meteorological events.
Once again, global warming and climate change are having direct effects on many, many people's lives. We must learn from this and make sure that the OPEC summit delegates pay attention to the disastrous consequences from increasing use of fossil fuels. Only from renewable energy sources ultimately replacing oil can we reduce co2 emissions sufficiently to stop climate change intensifying.
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