Cyclone 'SIDR' wreaks havoc in coastal dists

FE Team | Published: November 17, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
At least 548 people were feared killed and thousands injured as a savage storm battered Thursday the country's costal areas, rendering hundreds of families homeless, unofficial sources said.
However, provisional figures released by the food and disaster management ministry said, confirmed at least 223 deaths.
The cyclone called 'SIDR' triggered a 15-foot high tidal surge that inundated low-lying areas of Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalakathi under Barisal division, snapping communication links, according to government officials and voluntary agencies.
"The death toll is likely to mount further as we're receiving more information from the affected areas," an official of the food and disaster ministry told a press conference in the city Friday.
The death toll tallied by the FE is based on official and unofficial sources until 8-30 pm Friday. The government officials were unable to provide the number of casualties in Barguna, Jhalakathi and Bagerhat, considered the worst-affected areas.
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed flew to some cyclone-affected districts on the coasts of the Bay of Bengal Friday to inspect the extent of damage to the lives and property, officials said.
The cyclonic storm caused partial disruption at airports, forced Chittagong and Mongla ports to suspend their operations until early Friday, while also cutting off roads and railway networks in the affected areas.
Although the economic losses are too early to assess, the hurricane SIDR has cut a deep swath through agriculture and non-farm sectors, officials at the Agriculture Ministry said.
Telecommunications and internet services across the country have almost foundered as the cyclone has caused disruption in international communications.
Newspaper houses struggled to gather news and information from global wire services, limiting their coverage of international news.
The storm and tidal surge ravaged the production areas of shrimp, the country's second biggest foreign exchange earner.
Talking to the FE, president of Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association Maksudur Rahman said entrepreneurs will count huge losses, as the cyclone-battered Mongla, Satkhira and Bagerhat areas account for nearly 70 per cent of the country's total shrimp cultivation.
Of an estimated 5.0 million people of the coastal region, around 1.5 million people were evacuated in 13 coastal districts, officials pointed out.
By early Friday the storm weakened to a tropical storm and moved well inland northeast of Dhaka.
Most of the deaths were caused by collapsing houses and flying debris. Three people were electrocuted in the capital Dhaka.
Agriculture ministry said rice and other crops in the cyclone-battered areas were badly damaged, and it had compounded sufferings to the villagers, who had lost two crops in the floods during July-September.
Hundreds of fishing boats caught in the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal failed to return to shore, while trees and power poles were uprooted, disrupting communication and electricity supplies.
"The whole region is experiencing an unprecedented power outage. It reminds us of the day of cataclysm," a Red Crescent official stationed in Barisal told this correspondent over telephone.
The storm packing winds of 250 kph continued its severest onslaughts on the southern coast from about 5:30pm Thursday to early Friday when it weakened into a tropical storm and was moving across the country to the northeast.
Low-lying coastal district of Barguna was the worst hit, with the death toll reaching 77 there alone, reports from private news agencies said.
Barisal had 52 casualties, Patuakhali 40, Bagerhat 15, Khulna 17, Gopalganj 11, Bhola 15, Satkhira 13 and Faridpur 10, as storm surges nearly 15-feet high slammed into 15 coastal districts.
Disaster management officials in Dhaka said casualties might rise as hundreds of fishing boats caught in the cyclone failed to return to shore.
The surges washed away hundreds of thatched and mud huts, destroyed crops and fish farms and killed livestock.
Dhaka had power and communications link cut off as driving rains flooded some streets and strong winds sent billboards flying.
A boat capsized in Satkhira drowning a 70-year-old man as SIDR struck Khulna-Barisal coastline amid driving rains.
The boat capsized at Noabek ferry terminal in Shyam Nagar in Satkhira, a private news agency quoted a police official as saying. Satkhira police chief Mirza Abdullahel Baki said three other passengers were missing after the boat sank.
The body of Ibrahim Hossain was found later, Baki said.
The winds brought down trees, power lines and billboards in Dhaka, injuring several people, according to the cyclone monitoring team.
By Friday morning the cyclone had weakened into a tropical storm, with winds dropping to 60km an hour, officials said.
"The hurricane crossed the coast at 3.0 am early Friday and was now lying over southern and central parts of Bangladesh as a land depression this morning," a latest Met office special bulletin said.
The whole of the country, including the capital, experienced a blackout after Thursday midnight as all power stations tripped after the SIDR lashed the country.
In Barguna, another worst hit district, at least 57 people were killed and hundreds injured, and thousands of houses damaged by the severe cyclone, state-run Bangladesh Television reported.
Further details were not available immediately, as communications with the district remained cut off.
A United News of Bangladesh report from Barisal said the casualty in Barguna, popularly known as sea-daughter, could rise further.
In Patuakhali, acting police super of the district Abu Saleh M Raihan confirmed the death figure. "The death toll may rise further," he said.
In Bagerhat, road communications with all upazilas, including Swarankhola, Mongla and Morelganj, remained disrupted.
The fate of the people in backwater Dublarchar, including thousands of fishermen, could not be unknown as local administration failed to contact them. A team of the coastguard from Mongla set out for the offshore island in the morning.
One trawler, some passenger and fishing-boats sank in the Mongla port channel, officials said.
When reached by the FE over telephone, a senior forest official at the Sundarbans range said that the SIDR cut a deep swath through the world's largest mangrove forests. "Our offices were damaged, boats capsized or washed away," he said.
District and police administrations, coastguard, army and Red Crescent have already started rescue and relief operations in the affected districts and areas.
Natural calamities are common phenomena in Bangladesh. A severe cyclone took away more than half a million people in 1970, while another in 1991 killed 143,000.
This year's cyclone, which followed the annual monsoon floods that killed more than 1,000 people, might wreak havoc on the economy, slowing down growth, economists say.