On this day 40 years ago, what is now Bangladesh (it was then East Pakistan) suffered what may have been the deadliest tropical cyclone in history, the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta cyclone. The storm formed over the Bay of Bengal on November 8, 1970, and reached a maximum sustained wind speed of 115 mph (185 kph) before making landfall on November 12.
Though the storm never reached a category 5 status (sustained wind speeds greater than 140 mph on the Australian scale of cyclone intensity), it unfortunately hit a very densely populated of Bangladesh, killing several hundred thousand people and ranking, according to the NOAA in 2008, as the third deadliest natural disaster in history (after the Huang He floods of 1887 and 1931). (Estimates of the number dead vary from 300,000 to 1 million, though about 500,000 is an accepted figure.) (Some 140,000 people would die 21 years later in Bangladesh in another devastating cyclone.)
Flooding on Bhola Island after the cyclone; Harry Koundakjian/AP
The catastrophe not only brought devastation to the people of East Pakistan, but it changed the political complexion of the region. As Britannica’s article concludes:
The Pakistani government’s handling of the rescue and relief operations was severely criticized by both the international media and local political leaders in East Pakistan. Mounting frustration with relief efforts contributed to a victory for opposition politicians in the national elections held a month after the cyclone. The deteriorating political conditions culminated in a war that ended in 1971 with East Pakistan’s independence as the new country of Bangladesh.
