Community leaders said damage to the camps was extensive and there had been no attempt to evacuate the Rohingya.
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At least seven people were killed and 50 injured by Cyclone Mora, according to Mohammad Ali Hussain, the chief administrator of Cox’s Bazar district, a sliver of land in southeast Bangladesh bordering Myanmar.
They disseminated early warnings in communities via megaphone and also helped to evacuate people to the safety of cyclone safe shelters. They described how residents had to run for shelter in the middle of the night.
Community leader Shamsul Alam told Reuters in the Balukhali and Kutupalong camps almost all the 10,000 thatched huts were flattened.
Cyclone Mora caused hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the Cox’s Bazar district to higher ground, as experts predict the disaster will impact around 11 million people.
Authorities had been bracing for an even more severe cyclone: “They had planned to evacuate one million people”, Julie reports.
South Asia is frequently hit by flooding in the summer with the arrival of the annual monsoon rains.
Bangladeshi villagers take refuge in a cyclone shelter in Cox’s Bazar district. People are advised to stay inside their houses who are not at low lying areas of Chittagong.
“We have mainly alerted PWD based on our last experience of some landslides, especially in rural areas”, Dkhar said. The cyclone started landfall at around 6 am in Saints Martin, where hundreds of homes were reportedly damaged.
“The damage and destruction left by the storm is enormous, with trees uprooted, homes and crops destroyed, roads and telecommunications interrupted and a large number of schools damaged”, Save the Children Country Director in Bangladesh, Mark Pierce said.
More than 100 people are still missing.
Apart from the Rohingya shelters, at least 17,000 homes were damaged and many low-lying villages were inundated by a 1.3-meter (four feet) storm surge, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Shah Amanat International Airport at Chittagong resumed its operation from 2:00pm, airport’s Manager Wing Commander Reazul Kabir told our local staff correspondent.
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Cyclone Mora made landfall in Bangladesh’s southeastern region Tuesday morning with heavy rain and gusting wind speed up to 135 kph. However, the administration has not yet released an exact account of the damage caused by Mora.
