Cyclone Remal is due to hit the southern coast and parts of neighboring India later today, with Bangladesh's weather department predicting strong winds gusting up to 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour. Cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh over the decades, and the number hitting the low-lying, densely populated coast has increased markedly from one or two a year to three or four in recent years, a trend blamed on climate change. "The cyclone may trigger a storm surge of up to four meters (13 feet) above normal tide, which is potentially dangerous," Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik, a senior weather official, told AFP. Most of Bangladesh's coastal areas are only one or two meters above sea level. Authorities in Bangladesh have raised the cyclone warning signal to the maximum level, advising fishermen not to venture out to sea and ordering the evacuation of people from vulnerable areas. "We are in a state of panic," said Yusuf Fakir, a 35-year-old fisherman from Kuakata, a town in southern Bangladesh that is directly in the projected path of the storm. He sent his wife and children to stay with relatives inland, while he stays behind to guard their belongings. "Our daily life is being disrupted," he said, recalling the devastation caused by previous cyclones. As people fled, police said a ferry carrying more than 50 passengers -- double its capacity -- had sunk near Mongla, a port on the storm's projected path. "At least 13 people were injured and taken to hospital," local police chief Mushfiqur Rahman Tushar told AFP, adding that other boats had rescued the remaining passengers. Disaster Management Secretary Kamrul Hasan told AFP that people living in "unsafe and vulnerable houses" had been ordered to move to safety. "At least 800,000 people have been moved to cyclone shelters," he added, saying the authorities had deployed tens of thousands of volunteers to warn people of the danger. The weather department said the cyclone, which has already forced the closure of the airport in Kolkata, in southeast India and just across the border from Bangladesh, is due to make landfall between 6:00 pm and midnight (1200-1800 GMT). Hassan said some 4,000 cyclone shelters had been prepared along the country's coast on the Bay of Bengal, with the storm expected to hit a 220-kilometer (135-mile) stretch from the Indian island of Sagar to Khepupara in Bangladesh. The Indian navy said in a statement Sunday that it had put two ships equipped with medical facilities on standby for "immediate deployment for providing relief and assistance to the affected population". While scientists say climate change is making storms more powerful, improved forecasting and evacuation planning have significantly reduced the death toll. An estimated half a million people died in the Great Bhola Cyclone in November 1970, most of them drowned in the storm surge. In May last year, Cyclone Mora brought the most powerful storm surge to hit Bangladesh since Cyclone Sidr in November 2007, which killed more than 3,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. In October, at least two people died and nearly 300,000 fled their homes for shelters when Cyclone Hamoon hit the southeastern coast of the country. Read Also: Bangladesh instado a acabar com repressão a trabalhadores do setor têxtil (Portuguese version)