One can infer from the passage that one reason why so many lives were lost in the cyclone was because ____ .

The exact number of people who died in the cyclone
that struck Bangladesh last year will probably never
be known. Winds reaching 145 miles per hour
hammered the country's low-lying south-eastern coast
for nine hours, at one point driving a wall of water
roughly 20 feet high across the area – one of the most
densely populated places in the world. It was the
strongest storm ever recorded in the region. The
official news agency reported that 125.000 victims had
been confirmed dead, but it was believed that the toll
was actually much higher.