500,000 dead. The deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded. Helped birth a nation.
On 12 November 1970, the Bhola Cyclone made landfall on the densely populated Ganges Delta of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), generating a storm surge over 20 feet high that swept over low-lying islands and swept away entire communities. An estimated 500,000 people were killed — the highest death toll ever recorded for a tropical cyclone. The Pakistani government's delayed and inadequate relief response fuelled public outrage that directly contributed to the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and the creation of an independent Bangladesh.
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