Dhaka, Nov 16 (Xinhua) The unofficial death toll in the powerful cyclone that ripped through the coastal zones of Bangladesh Thursday night has risen to 163, a private television channel reported Friday.Official television channel BTV put the death toll at 57 without giving details. Government departments are working round the clock to collect casualty figures.According to residents in the coastal districts, the storm caused by Cyclone Sidr has left a trail of devastation, uprooting thousands of trees and damaging a number of houses.The cyclone was more powerful than the one in 1991 that killed 140,000 people, according to a top weather official quoted by a local news agency.Almost all the coastal areas were affected and the death toll is expected to go up further. Because of the cyclone, electricity and telephones have been disconnected since midnight in some places including capital Dhaka.Bangladesh's coasts have been hit by over 80 cyclones in the past 131 years, killing about two million people and making many more millions homeless, meteorologists said.On Nov 1, 1876, the 'Great Bakerganj Storm' hit southern Barisal region at a speed of 220 kmph, killing about 200,000 people. It was considered 'a great human disaster' as the country's population was scanty compared to today's 140 million.According to Sajedur Rahman, former director of Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the cyclones brewed in the Bay of Bengal usually hit Bangladesh in April-May and October-December.A cyclone with a speed of 222 kmph ravaged the coastal districts of Barisal, Patuakhali, Noakhali and Bhola, washing away about one million people under 10-metre-high waves on Nov 12, 1970. It has since been remembered as the 'Fearful November 12'.About 11,000 people were killed in 1985 in a powerful cyclone. On April 29, 1991, a 225-kmph-cyclone swept through southeastern Chittagong and killed over 140,000 people.Coastal Chittagong against suffered the brunt on Nov 29, 1997, when a cyclone with 224 kmph wind speed killed about 150,000.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
