15
November 2007, Thursday. The day takes
thousands of life’s and destroys the
home, wealth’s, cattle and cultivation in
total 23 Districts of Bangladesh.
The devastative
SIDR hits Bangladesh in this day. Poor and
Marginalized people have affected more,
especially Women and Children are becoming
vulnerable.
The
Meteorological Department of Government Warns
People about SIDR, But the poor people felt
insecure to left their home and cattle. But in
the last movement while the SIDR attacks, they
escape everything to safe their life’s.
The most
vulnerable districts are Bhola, Barguna,
Satkhira, Bagerhat, Jhalkathi, Pirojpur,
Patuakhali, Barishal, Gopalganj, Shariatpur.
It
started crossing the country from northern Bay
of Bengal last evening with high-tidal surge
and
strong winds of over 200km per hour. Exact
figure of losses of lives and properties could
not be known. But it was reported that
Hundreds of thousands of people, especially
those living in coastal zone, were evacuated
in the last three days. Rescue goes on as toll
cross 2000. Still thousands
missing; ships, aircrafts, copters join the
search;
hundreds of thousands homeless; over 2 lakh
livestock killed.
The disaster management control room reported
the deaths of 1,784 people in 23 districts, Bagerhat leading the casualties list with 610.
However, unofficial estimates based on the
accounts of rescuers and newsmen put the death
toll at over 2,000, with several thousands
still missing. Red Crescent fears toll may top
10,000.
The disaster management control room prepared
a rough estimate of losses caused by Sidr The
cyclone left its mark of devastation on 103
upazilas, 710 unions, affecting 27.45 lakh
people of about 8.44 lakh families. The storm
also killed 2.42 lakh livestock and completely
destroyed crops on 18,122-acre land including
six lakh metric tons of Aman. According to the
estimate, 2.73 lakhs houses were totally
flattened.
Of the 610 dead
in Bagerhat, 550 were killed only in
Sharankhola, an upazila close to Sundarbans
where the fierce tropical storm made its
landfall Thursday midnight. Both government
and private sources gave accounts of horrors
from a union of the worst hit Sharankhola. As
per conservative estimates, over 400 dead
bodies were recovered from the Southkhali
union alone while the fate of a few thousand
fishermen in another washed-away union --
Dublar Char -- could not be known as yet.
Survivors and rescuers in the six
worst-hit districts Bagerhat, Barguna,
Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Barisal and Jhalakathi
-- were seen in tears, burying their dear ones
with the air thick with smells of decomposing
bodies of human beings and livestock. With the
communications and utility services yet to be
restored fully, aid workers and rescuers
struggled hard to reach survivors in most of
the affected areas. Thousands of people are
still living under the open sky with no food,
drinking water or medicine. Countless trawlers
and fishing boats remain missing with hope
diminishing fast for any survivors.
The Government meanwhile yesterday deployed
military ships, aircrafts and helicopters to
strengthen the rescue drive and relief
operation. Riding on ships, Navy personnel and
Coast Guards began searching through coastal
regions on Friday for missing people. About
3,000 troops from different garrisons were
also rushed to the cyclone-affected areas, and
air force helicopters and aircrafts dropped
emergency relief supplies on inaccessible
localities.
According to the latest government toll, the
cyclone killed 610 in Bagerhat, 362 in Barguna,
285 in Patuakhali, 254 in Pirojpur, 83 in
Barisal, 34 in Jhalakathi, 30 in Madaripur, 29
in Gopalganj, 23 in Bhola, 15 in Shariatpur,
14 in Khulna, 13 in Satkhira, 11 in Faridpur,
four each in Dhaka, Chandpur, and Munshiganj,
and two each in Laxmipur, and Narayanganj, one
each in Jessore, Chittagong, Rajbari,
Narsingdi, and Narail.
SUPRO District
Committee expects Cooperation from different
level of communities to safe lives and life’s
of poor and marginalized people of their
respective districts.
Extend humanitarian cooperation to:
Satkhira District
AKM Anisur Rahman
President, SUPRO Satkhira District Committee
Barsha, Palashpole, Satkhera.
