We rarely hear about the disasters that were avoided – but there’s a lot we can learn from them

When a huge cyclone slammed into East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) in November 1970 it caused water in the Ganges Delta to rise by 10 metres. Entire towns were submerged. At least 300,000 people died – it remains atop lists of the deadliest known tropical cyclones.

Something similar happened in 1991 – another 139,000 deaths. Bangladesh has a long list of cyclones with five or six figure death tolls.

These days, Bangladesh has a much larger population and is still getting hit by huge cyclones and widespread flooding. These storms are getting stronger. But these more recent cyclones have each led to only dozens of deaths.