A Refuge from Oceans and Hurricanes: A Story of Cyclone Shelters in Bangladesh Abutting the Bay of Bengal

Abstract

The world’s oceans are a pivotal player in climate change as a reservoir of carbon and heat. In particular, a warmer ocean may generate a tropical cyclone more frequently that is also more powerful. The historical data shows that deadliest tropical cyclones resulted in the human fatalities of over 100,000 up to as many as half a million. Six of the eight deadliest hurricanes globally occurred in the Bay of Bengal. The particularly high cyclone risk faced by the countries in the Bay of Bengal arises from multiple factors such as the fertile Bengal Delta for agriculture, a high population density, and the topology of low-lying lands. The large number of fatalities results from both high intensity winds and a high storm surge, with the latter more fatal. This chapter highlights the efforts during the past half century to overcome the high cyclone risk in Bangladesh, one of which was constructing cyclone shelters. The cyclone shelter program has reduced the number of deaths by 75% given the same height of a storm surge. An efficient adaptation to tropical cyclones under a warmer Planet would require advanced technological options such as satellite tracking, a cyclone trajectory projection, and a cyclone surge modeling.