Cyclone Sidr

Sidr, now this word has a fearful and horrible meaning toward the whole Bangladesh. The whole country went through a terrible experience on 11/15 night. In a couple of hour, cyclone Sidr left a trail of death and destruction of unbelievable proportions. It was said to be that Sidr was fiercer than Hurricane Katrina. The actual death is hard to estimate as many people have washed away by the sea and rescue efforts are facing problems in the many hard to reaches places. According to newspapers and television news, 23,000 acres of crops completely wiped out and more than 10,000 people believed to be dead. The most affected beings are domestic animals. According to information, nearly two and half lakh domestic animals are eradicated. It is important to mention that after two or three days of Sidr, I have seen news on ntv that in ‘Dublar Char’ there is only one buffalo alive. All the animals are died there. Sidr caused a trail of devastation in the whole south area of Bangladesh. The mostly affected areas are Sundarban, Dublar Char, Patharghata, Barguna, Khulna, Bhola, Sharonkhola and Mongla port. Most of the houses are destroyed completely. We can not imagine the actual situation and no statistics cannot do justice to the actual human sufferings caused on that fateful night. With wind speeds up to 240 km/h and a tidal surge of up to 20 feet high at some places and everything in the path of Sidr was flattened to the ground. In one night Sidr robbed people’s possession which they ever owned. Sidr first hit on Hiron Point of Sundarban and then in Dublar Char. Sundarban is the pride of Bangladesh but it is badly damaged by the cyclone and the devastation is beyond our imagination. One fourth of the forest area has been completely damaged and the exact loss of flora and fauna is yet to be calculated. Dhaka was not the path of Sidr but the whole city was awake through the whole night and felt the power of the storm as windows rattled as well as the ominous sound of the wind. The whole country immersed into darkness for 24 hours because of the failure of national power grid. There was no electricity in Dhaka on Friday. So, at first I could not imagine the situation but in Saturday when I saw TV, I was totally surprised. Every family of affected areas lost many relatives and member of their family. My grandfather’s houses are in Barisal and many relatives of mine live there. They said that that night was really very fearful and cyclone destroyed there many trees cost of lakhs. Now relief work is going on the affected area. Donations are coming from home and abroad. Media have given huge coverage on it and playing a great role till now. But the very sad thing is that many NGO’s are trying to impose the peoples to pay their weekly loan. Thousands of the poorest of poor people are living under the open sky. Rehabitation program is very necessary for them and it is going on now. People of the affected area want work and we have to take some steps on it. We cannot stop the natural disaster but we can reduce the losses. To protect this, we have to make good and suitable shelter houses, raise awareness among the people. Every year all the disasters come to poor people and destroyed them. But they pick themselves again and start a new life and smiles come back on their faces. It’s really a wonder to us.