Early warning system saved thousands

IN THE days and hours before the devastating cyclone that tore through Bangladesh’s coast last week, the performance of the early warning programme was a rare bright spot in a saga of catastrophe, disaster management officials said yesterday.

In Bangladesh, where many government programmes are inefficient at best, a system that used hi-tech weather tracking satellites at one end and volunteers carrying bullhorns at the other operated impressively well.

More than one million people fled to shelters after hearing the warnings from radio, television and volunteers who rode motorbikes down potholed roads to alert villagers, according to Ian Rector, the United Nations chief technical adviser for Bangladesh’s disaster programme.