Cyclone-hit Bangladesh braces for devastation - 颱風討論

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCCaHuP13K9ZEAnCp7jy_ralGIZw

Cyclone-hit Bangladesh braces for devastation
16 minutes ago

美聯社的報導

孟加拉做了被颶風蹂躪的準備

DHAKA (AFP) — Impoverished Bangladesh was Friday facing massive devastation
after a powerful cyclone ripped through its southwestern coast before
sweeping north towards the capital Dhaka.

貧窮的孟加拉週五迎戰超級旋風,在掃過首都達卡之前橫掃西南海岸


The eye of cyclone Sidr, shown in satellite images as a huge swirling white
mass moving in from the Bay of Bengal, hit land on Thursday evening.

從衛星雲圖來看 Sidr的眼牆在登陸時仍十分暴力

Ferocious winds and rains uprooted trees, destroyed countless flimsy bamboo
and tin homes and snapped phone and power lines.

超級強風和暴雨摧毀了樹 , 竹子, 鐵皮屋, 電話和電力傳輸..


"Many trees have been uprooted and houses and schools blown away," said
Mostofa Kamal, an official in Barisal, 120 kilometres south of Dhaka.

"There are no reports of deaths so far. We cannot get out to get much
information because of the severe storm," Kamal, a relief and rehabilitation
officer, told AFP by telephone.

現在為止還沒有死亡的報導傳出, 但因為這場嚴峻的風暴
我們尚未能掌握到許多消息

Southern areas were plunged into darkness as electricity supplies were
snapped and "innumerable" homes were flattened, a report by the private UNB
news agency said quoting correspondents.

南部地區昨晚是一片黑暗 有數不清的房屋慘遭蹂躪

Officials reported wind speeds of 220 to 240 kilometres (140 to 155 miles) an
hour in what they described as one of the worst storms in years.

官方報導風力有220~240km/h (17級風 不過應該是估計吧 那邊似乎沒能測陣風)

Tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people in the southwest of the
country were moved to special evacuation shelters in a bid to avoid the mass
casulaties caused by previous cyclones.

西南海岸有數十萬人被撤離到避難所

Although officials said they were optimistic that the death toll would turn
out to be low, they feared daylight would reveal widespread destruction.

官方樂觀的認為死傷不會慘重 但他們擔心實際的災害要等到太陽升起後才看的出來

"We expect the damage to be enormous," said an official of the disaster
management and relief ministry.

我們認為災害會很嚴重 (災害部門和軍方)

So far only one casualty has been reported -- an elderly man who died when a
small boat carrying 17 people across a river in southern Satkhira district
capsized during the storm. All of the other passengers were able to swim to
shore, an official said.

到現在為止已經有傷亡傳出 一個長者在一艘載17人橫渡河流的小船上喪生
其他人都能順利的游過河岸

Experts described Sidr as similar in strength to the 1991 storm that
triggered a tidal wave that killed an estimated 138,000 people.

專家描述Sidr的強度類似於1991造成138000死亡的旋風

Another cyclone in 1970 killed up to half a million people in the
disaster-prone and impoverished country.

另一個1970的Cyclone造成50萬人死亡

But Bangladesh has since then moved to set up a complex early warning system
and evacuation programme targeting those in low-lying coastal areas which are
prone to flooding.

不過孟加拉在一些易有水患的低窪地區已經有早期預警系統和疏散計畫


The head of the Bangladeshi meteorological department, Samarendra Karmakar,
told AFP he was optimistic that the evacuation programme would spare the
country the huge loss of life seen in previous decades.

孟加拉氣象部門的頭頭表示對於這些疏散計畫表示樂觀

"It is not less severe than the 1991 cyclone, in some places it is more
severe. But we are expecting less casualties this time because the government
took early measures. We alerted people to be evacuated early," he said.

這次的旋風並不亞於1991年那次 在部分地區甚至是更嚴重的
但我們認為災害不會像上次那樣 因為我們已經有準備

India has also been lashed by the cyclone, which forecasters said would
fizzle out on Saturday over India's northeast, just south of the mountain
kingdom of Bhutan.

Karmakar said rivers in the Sunderbans area, a vast mangrove forest
straddling the India-Bangladesh border and the natural habitat of endangered
Royal Bengal tigers, had severely swollen as the storm moved north in the
direction of Dhaka.

In Bangladesh the main sea port at Chittagong, to the east of the cyclone's
path, was also shut down as a precaution.



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