( CNN ) -- Tropical Cyclone Mahasen jogged northward Thursday prior to striking the coast of Bangladesh , averting the widespread disaster that government authorities had prepared for . Still , at least 12 people were killed , thousands of thatched houses were damaged and trees uprooted , the state news agency said . `` The situation is turning normal and the people have started returning home after some 200,000 people took overnight refuge at cyclone shelters at Barisal Division , '' divisional commissioner of Barisal Mohammad Nurul Amin told Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha ( BSS ) . `` The damage was not that much what we feared , and people who took shelters have already started moving to their houses as the weather is becoming almost normal , '' he said . Bangladeshi authorities had relocated hundreds of thousands of people in vulnerable areas to safer ground ahead of the storm 's arrival . The storm 's strongest gusts reached 90 kph ( 56 mph ) , weaker than a hurricane , BSS said . Authorities had suspended port activities at Chittagong , a major transport and commercial hub , and canceled all flights to and from the city 's airport . The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had warned that Mahasen could put millions of people in the surrounding region at risk . On Wednesday , aid agencies and local authorities scrambled to prepare residents and to put emergency supplies in position . Bangladeshi authorities relocated at least half a million people from the coastal districts of southeastern Bangladesh , the top administrative officer of Chittagong Division said . Authorities prepared thousands of buildings as cyclone shelters . The OCHA put the number of people ordered to relocate by the Bangladeshi government at 1 million nationwide . There was reason for the caution : In 1970 , Cyclone Bhola killed some 400,000 people , according to the OCHA . Cyclone Sidr killed nearly 4,000 people in 2007 , and Cyclone Aila killed about 200 people in 2009 . A vulnerable group in Myanmar . Relocation efforts have also proved challenging in Myanmar 's western state of Rakhine , which borders Bangladesh . On Rakhine 's coast , Myanmar authorities and relief agencies worked to relocate tens of thousands of Muslims who had been living in makeshift camps in low-lying areas since last year , when their homes were destroyed in sectarian violence . Most of them are Rohingya , a stateless Muslim minority who suffered during decades of military rule in Myanmar . Sectarian violence erupted last year in Rakhine between Buddhists and Muslims , resulting in the deaths of scores of people , most of them Rohingya . Since then , more than 100,000 Muslims have been forced to live in camps . In a report last month , the advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar authorities of involvement in a Buddhist campaign of `` ethnic cleansing '' against the Rohingya in Rakhine . The Myanmar government dismissed the report as `` one-sided . '' The efforts to relocate some of the displaced Rohingya living in the camps appear to have been hindered by distrust of the security forces involved . On Monday night , a boat ferrying people from one camp in Rakhine to safer areas hit rocks and capsized , the OCHA said , citing the government . Fifty-eight people were missing and an unspecified number died , the agency said . CNN 's Brian Walker and journalist Farid Ahmed contributed to this report .
NEW : ` ` The situation is turning normal , '' a government official says . PA : At least 12 people were killed . Hundreds of thousands of people had been relocated to safer areas .