Strong Cyclone Hits Bangladesh by Barbora Kasparova

With 242 people killed and nearly one million evacuated on Friday, Bangladesh suffers another cyclone. According to an official at food and disaster ministry, "The death count is rising fast as we get more information from the affected districts and …it may go much higher." (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSDHA28279320071116?pageNumber=3). Why Bangladesh? Naturally, due to the geography of the country the cyclones are directed towards Bangladesh's coast and are intensified by the low and flat terrain of the most of the Bangladesh. A paradox is, that the areas that get most affected have very rich soil and thus many farmers settle there. What is there to be done? An important part is monitoring and being able to predict the cyclone and give an early warning. Bangladesh does not have any weather satellites of its own, but relies on information from NASA and NOAA. Even when monitored, cyclone cannot be prevented. Therefore Bangladesh government has done cyclone shelter construction, which rapidly reduced the death rate of the cyclone occurrence. For comparison, during 1970 cyclone 350 000 people died, and in 1997 during a similar cyclone, "only" 200 lost lives were reported, with more than 1 million evacuated. (For further info see & Understanding the Economic and Financial Impact of Natural Disasters & Charlotte Benson and Edward J. Clay) The cyclones cannot be fought, but with better handling of the situation, surely their severity can be lowered to a minimum.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071115/ap_on_re_as/bangladesh_cyclone;_ylt=AjWTa4g.m11dqbF8ueLgS3.s0NUE

by Barbora Kasparova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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