Tuesday, a cyclone pounded the coast of Bangladesh, killing at least nine people, demolishing homes, uprooting trees, and interrupting road, power, and communication systems, according to officials.

Before Cyclone Sitrang made landfall on the west coast, massive evacuations helped preserve lives, but the entire magnitude of casualties and destruction will not be known until communications are fully restored, they said.

After communications were restored in his neighborhood, Mizanur Rahman, a resident of the Bhola district, told Reuters, "It was horrible, it appeared like the sea was going to get us."

We had a sleepless night and could do nothing but pray.

The cyclone arrived from the Bay of Bengal with gusts of up to 88 kilometers per hour (55 miles per hour) and a storm surge of around 3 meters (10 feet) that inundated low-lying coastal communities.

According to officials, power and phone lines have been severely disrupted, and coastal regions have been plunged into darkness.

The majority of victims were crushed by falling trees.

In refugee camps in southeast Bangladesh, where more than one million ethnic Rohingya refugees from neighboring Burma (also known as Myanmar) reside in frail shelters, no substantial damage was reported.

Nearly 32,000 Rohingya refugees who relocated from camps to a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal were told by officials to remain indoors.

Mohammed Arman, a Rohingya refugee, told Reuters over the phone, "We felt the power of the heavy wind but were spared."

Heavy rain rained on the streets of Dhaka's capital, creating some flooding and commuting delays.

The cyclone also hit the state of West Bengal in eastern India.