A powerful cyclone that hit low-lying areas in Bangladesh and India killed at least 65 people, according to a new toll reported Wednesday by government officials and media.
Strong storms and crashing waves battered the coast as Hurricane Sand made landfall on Sunday evening, but by Monday afternoon, the winds had subsided. The rain and winds were still continuing as residents began searching through the rubble of their homes.
The director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, Aziz Rahman, said that the cyclone was “one of the longest cyclones in the country’s history,” and attributed this to shifts caused by climate change.
At least 17 people have died in Bangladesh, according to the Disaster Management and Police Office.
In India, government reports and local media said that 48 people died in a new toll, after the previous toll recorded the death of 21 people in the country.
A government official said on Wednesday that ten people died in West Bengal.
At least ten more people died in the states of Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya, according to reports in the local newspaper Hindustan Times.
Nearly one million people left their coastal villages in Bangladesh and India in search of shelters to protect them from storms and crashing waves.
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