Powerful Cyclone Slams Bangladeshi Coast, Offshore Islands

A cyclone that gathered strength over the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal for two days walloped offshore islands and the Bangladeshi coast Monday with winds up to 125 m.p.h.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from wind-driven rains that reduced visibility to almost zero when the storm lashed the offshore islands of St. Martin’s, Shapuri, Maheskhali and Kutubdia and the coastal towns of Cox’s Bazar, Chakaria and Teknaf.

The storm was heading north toward the Chittagong region, which was devastated by a similar cyclone in 1991 that killed about 131,000 people.

“There is blinding rain and roaring winds. . . . We have plunged into darkness,” said Tajul Islam, a relief worker on Maheskhali, where 10,000 people were killed in 1991. He was contacted by telephone from Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital.

Communication with most areas abruptly ended when the cyclone hit the mainland at 6 p.m.

Enamul Kabir, the administrator of Cox’s Bazar, said thousands of mud-and-thatch houses were blown away. Hundreds of trees and electricity poles were uprooted, he said.

Among the most vulnerable people are the 200,000 Muslims from Myanmar living in refugee camps south of Cox’s Bazar. They arrived two years ago to escape persecution by the predominantly Buddhist army in Myanmar, formerly Burma.

The Meteorological Department said wind speeds of up to 125 m.p.h. were recorded in Teknaf on the border with Myanmar.