News Desk : dhakamirror.com
The deep depression over the east and west central Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm “Remal” at around 9:00 pm today and is expected to hit the country’s coasts between 6pm and 11:59pm tomorrow, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD).
The Met Office asked the Payra and Mongla maritime ports to hoist danger Signal 7 and danger Signal 6 for Cox’s Bazar and Chattogram sea ports.
Within the 54km periphery of Cyclone Remal, the windspeed is 62kmh, which could increase up to 88kmh, said Met officials.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority has suspended operations of all vessels on coastal routes from 3:00pm, a BIWTA official said.
“We are in touch with the Met Office regularly. If they ask to hoist Signal 2 on inland water ports, we will suspend the operation of vessels below 65ft. If Met Office hoists Signal 3 for inland water ports, we will suspend the operation of all inland vessels including ferries,” he said, wishing anonymity.
Rafi Al Farooq, duty officer of the control room at the Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters, said they have prepared for the upcoming cyclone by establishing separate monitoring cells in Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Barisal, and the coastal districts to collect immediate information from there.
“We have alerted all fire stations, including the coastal belts, and cancelled the leaves of all officials. We increased manpower and fire equipment in coastal districts. We are especially focussing on Rohingya camps, landslides in hilly and coastal areas,” he said.
He said firemen have been miking in coastal regions which could be affected to take precautions and started relocating people who are at high risk.
– Input from The Daily Star was used in this article.
