By: PramodKumar
A Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteer drowned Wednesday (20) when a boat capsized while evacuating villagers in the path of Cyclone Amphan, the organisation said.
“There were four of them on the boat when it sank,” Nurul Islam Khan, director of the Cyclone Preparedness Programme of the Bangladesh Red Crescent, said.
Amphan, one of the fiercest cyclones in decades, was due to make landfall late Wednesday afternoon with forecasts of a potentially devastating and deadly storm surge.
Bangladesh has shifted over two million people to storm shelters and deployed the military to deal with the powerful cyclone ‘Amphan’ which is set to make a landfall on the costal districts.
Authorities have already raised the alert level to ‘great danger’ for some districts in the country as the cyclone, the most powerful storm since cyclone ‘Sidr’ killed nearly 3,500 people in 2007, was approaching the coastline.
“We have the preparations (to face cyclone Amphan). We are taking all possible measures that we should adopt for protecting the lives and properties of the people from the cyclone,” prime minister Hasina told a meeting of the National Disaster Management Council (NDMC) formed to review the preparations in facing the possible assault of the super cyclone. ”
The Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force have made preparations to tackle the super cyclone.
