Hurricane Sidr: They were the only survivors

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Six men were washed ashore at different points of Shaplerjar Maajher Char in the Baleshwar river Friday morning. It seemed they were the only survivors among those onboard at least 250 fishing trawlers, each manning eight-10 men.

Four of them were found unconscious and two barely able to speak. Locals said they are fishermen whose 10-man trawler went down as Sidr struck Thursday night.

The lucky fishermen said their trawler sank at Tekdia, nearly 50km away from the southernmost tip of Barguna.

Mamun walked from Shaplerjar to his home in Barguna late Friday after a local gave him a lungi, all six men had lost their clothes. Mamun told The Daily Star, “We did not have a radio. We did not know there was a storm coming but still we did not fear it until we realised our trawler was going to sink.

“We tied ourselves to buoys and jumped overboard. I lost consciousness immediately. I regained consciousness intermittently but all I saw was water. I chose to close my eyes. The last thing I remember is finding myself on the shores of Maajher Char,” he said.

In his home village of Padma, in Patharghata upazila in Barguna, there were at least 50 people who lost their trawlers at Tekdia along with their crew.

“I have no news of the nine people on my trawler. I went from char to char yesterday trying to find signs that some of them were alive but I could not find anything. I had two nephews among the nine,” said a visibly shaken and exhausted Yusuf Ali struggling to stand on his feet.

Mufazzal said he lost two brothers who were on those trawlers. Abdul Wahid said he lost a brother and three nephews; the list went on.

Others started asking, “Do you know anything about the trawlers?” Some of them were looking for their trawler mates, sometimes brothers, sometimes sons. They were all missing. All 250 boats, with at least 1,500 on board.

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