p.r.bullen - travelogue

cyclone sheltersouth of chittagong After seeing the aid project, we caught a late afternoon bus down to Cox's Bazaar, at the southern end of the thin strip of Bangladesh that runs down the east coast of the Bay of Bengal. The beach there is amazing, "the longest widest beach in the world," they all said, fed by sand swept down the coast from the mouths of the Ganges.

Like all of Bangladesh, this area is badly hit by cyclones (hurricanes), and the storms are incredibly dangerous on such low, flat coastal areas. So, they build cyclone shelters, like this one just a few hundred yards inland, where people can take refuge from the waves that wash far up onto shore. Many of them are built with Saudi money, apparently.