Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007 | 10:30 a.m.
Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation roughly the size of Iowa, is prone to destructive cyclones and floods. A look at past cyclones and their death tolls:
- May 20, 1998: A cyclone pounds the southeastern coast with 100-mph winds, killing at least 14 and injuring at least 200. More than 10,000 tin-roofed homes are flattened in the Chittagong region.
- Sept. 27, 1997: Nearly 500 fisherman are missing, 51 killed and hundreds of thousands are evacuated when a 90-mph cyclone hits the southeastern coast. The cyclone also kills at least 1,000 cattle and flattens thousands of straw-roofed homes.
- May 19-20, 1997: A two-day cyclone with winds up to 150 mph across the southeast coast kills 67, injures 7,000 and leaves 800,000 homeless.
- Nov. 25, 1995: A cyclone packing 70-mph winds kills five, leaves 200 missing and destroys 10,000 houses. Nearly 300,000 are forced to flee.
- May 2, 1994: Hundreds of thousands of people flee the coast as a 130-mph cyclone roars through the Bay of Bengal, killing 285.
- April 29, 1991: A cyclone with 140-mph winds makes landfall near Chittagong, leaving some 140,000 dead.
- May 26, 1989: A cyclone sweeps through the country, killing 60, injuring 2,000 and leaving 500,000 homeless.
- May 25, 1985: A cyclone out of Bay of Bengal comes ashore, killing some 11,000.
- Nov. 13, 1970: An estimated 300,000-500,000 people die when a 20-foot wave churned by a powerful cyclone washes over Chittagong and hundreds of coastal villages.
- May 28-29, 1965: A cyclone kills 22,000.
- May 28, 1963: A cyclone lashes the south, killing 22,000 and damaging about one million homes.
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