The met office issued Danger Signal No 7 in a scale of 10 for three of the four seaports as the cyclone “Roanu” advanced closer to Bangladesh coastlines, saying it was likely to gather more intensity in the coming hours.
“It was centred at 06:00 pm today about 860 kms southwest of Chittagong Port, 840 kms southwest of Cox’s Bazar port, 675 kms southwest of Mongla Port and 705 kms southwest of Payra Port,” the met office said in its latest bulletin issued in the evening.
The met office bulletin 13 asked the maritime ports of Mongla and Payra to hoist danger signal no 7 while the previous bulletin issued the directive for the Chittagong port alone identifying Roanu’s current location near Latitude 18.50 N & Longitude 85.00E.
The latest bulletin, however, kept intact the danger signal no 6 for the Cox’s Bazar port.
It added that the Roanu was likely to intensify further and move in a north-northeasterly direction and may cross Barisal-Chittagong coast by afternoon or evening tomorrow.
Meteorologists earlier in the afternoon told BSS that the cyclone was staying 965 kilometre southwest of Chittagong, 945 km southwest of Cox’s Bazar, 810 km southwest of Payra and 775 km southwest of Mongla at 5 pm.
They said the Roanu was advancing in a north-northeastern direction from the south-western region in the bay the keeping an edge with the coastlines, turning the sea very rough at the cyclone centre.
Until the midday today all the four ports were hoisting “local warning signal” no 4.
Met office director Shamsuddin Ahmed earlier in the afternoon told a media briefing that only heavy downpour could reduce the intensity of the cyclone which was expected to touch the coastlines late tomorrow.
Meteorologists said coastal districts of Chittagong, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Feni, Chandpur, Bhola, Borguna, Patuakhali, Barisal, Pirozpur, Jhalokathi, Bagherhat, Khulna, Satkhira and their offshore islands and shoals or chars would come under purview of danger signal number 7 because of the proximity of the three seaports.
“Under the influence of the cyclonic storm ‘Roanu’ the low-lying areas of (all these) coastal districts . . . and their offshore islands and chars (shoals) are likely to be inundated by storm surge of 4-5 feet height above normal astronomical tide,” the bulletin said.
The meteorologist said they now fear cyclone to hit the entire coastline from Mongla to Chittagong with its maximum brunt after midday tomorrow.
The bulletin, however, said maximum sustained wind speed within 54 kms of the cyclone centre remained to be about 62 kilometre per hour (kph) rising to 88 kph in the form of squalls as it was mentioned in the previous bulletin as well.
“All fishing boats and trawlers over North Bay have been advised to take shelter immediately and will remain in shelter till further notice,” the bulletin reiterated.