Cyclone Sidr to Make Category 4 Landfall

Source: The Daily Green

By at least one measure, Cyclone Sidr has reached Category 5 strength, with 161 mph winds, according to the latest from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, which until now had been wrongly predicting a weakening of the storm.

It still predicts some weakening and expects the massive hurricane to make landfall near the border of vulnerable western Bangladesh and northeastern India, near Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), as a Category 4 monster. Landfall is expected sometime Friday morning local time.

Past storms that have struck Bangladesh at that intensity have caused massive casualties that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Nine of the world's 13 deadliest hurricanes have occurred in the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh, with 142 million people living in flood-prone areas, is among the most vulnerable places for a hurricane to strike.

Bangladesh is also considered by some national security experts to be ground zero for the intersection of global warming and geopolitical instability, as repeated flooding and sea intrusion could force a future refugee crisis.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/cyclone-sidr-47111413

---

I would have posted a CNN or MSNBC link, but I guess they’re too busy with other stories. The potential death of hundreds of thousands of desperately poor people just doesn't make their radar...

:cry:

to evacuate so many people to a safe place within a day or so.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2268022&mesg_id=2268022

One of the factors here is that the weather guys thought it would dissipate before landfall.

The further we get into Global Warming, the more off these forecasts seem to be...

I've been dodging hurricanes since the 1950's, before there were satellite photos of the storms, and they often do not go where they are forecast.

This is going to be a disaster. At least in the U.S. most people have warning and have a chance to evacuate (with the very sad exception of Katrina, where there were too many people without the means to evacuate).

I'm afraid this is going to be like the one that hit the Bay of Bengal in the 1970s with hundreds of thousands of people lost.

Incredible pic off the bow of that freighter!!!

the media is`t be concerned about some people being washed away in some country no one has heard of....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/15/bangladesh.cyclone/index.html

It says it was updated 3 1/2 hours ago, so it's been there since at least 6AM EST.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21767866/

They also have a new story from today.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036059/

This seems to be from the Wire Service listing page.

Hurricane SIDR hit the coastal areas of Sundarbands this evening and expected to make landfall in Khulna-Barisal belt crossing the Baleshwar river between 9:00pm to 10:00pm tonight, a Met Office bulletin said.

The powerful hurricane with 160 to 180 kph wind speed hit Hiron Point, Khepupara and Dublarchar coastlines in Sundarbans at about 5:00pm, the Met bulletin added.

It is now centred 150 km off the Mongla Port.

Meanwhile, coastal areas of Mongla, Barisal and Khulna are experiencing storms accompanied with heavy downpours as a prelude to the impending natural calamity. Over1000 fishermen went missing after 300 fishing trawlers sank in the Bay during the storms.

a bit more:
http://www.bangladeshnews.com.bd/2007/11/15/sidr-makes-landfall-in-sundarbans/
-------------------

Oh well... who cares about it.
Just LOOK at the damage to coastal holiday homes along the shores
of the North Sea during that storm surge recently.
Probable worth more than a million Bangladeshis anyway.
At least if the media coverage is anything to go by.