With
55 mile-per-hour winds and downpours of more than a foot in some areas
on Saturday, the cyclone hit the south and southeast regions of Barisal
and Chittagong especially hard -- damaging hundreds of houses and
causing landslides, according to disaster officials.
Roanu made landfall Saturday and began to weaken as it roared over Bangladesh, according to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar.
In
the days before it touched down, the cyclone dumped 9 to 13 inches of
rain in parts of Bangladesh and more than 18 inches in Kakinada, India,
more than 800 miles away.
Parts of Bangladesh could see additional accumulations ranging from 2 to 6 inches, according to Chinchar.
"We've
confirmed 21 deaths in six districts so far," Dalil Uddin, a
representative of the disaster management ministry, told CNN.
Uddin
said many fatalities involved people who were buried under uprooted
trees, damaged houses and landslides. The death toll was expected to
rise.
Vast swaths of land in
coastal cities were inundated and some 500,000 people were evacuated to
shelters, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury, minister of disaster management
and relief, told reporters.
The storm disrupted power and road communications in many parts of the country, officials said.
Its sea level geography and location have conspired to make Bangladesh vulnerable to cyclones.
In 1991, a cyclone killed at least 140,000 people, according to the United Nations.
In
1970, Cyclone Bhola struck Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, killing
500,000 people. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
called the storm the 20th century's "greatest tropical system
disaster."
Since then, improved warning systems and shelters have helped reduce the number of deaths during more recent storms.
Journalist Farid Ahmed in Bangladesh contributed to this report.
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