Hurricane Sidr: Silent queue for succour, patient wait for food

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The line could be seen even from the sea. Hundreds of men standing in a long line.

We walk slowly up the sandy beach towards the queue. They are not only standing, but sitting as well — they must have been here for hours — in the hope of getting some relief. And many more are walking fast to add to the crowd.

Two tents have been set up by the navy — one serving as a medical camp and the other as the relief distribution point. The chief adviser is supposed to come in the morning to have a look at the people of Alor Kol, one of the worst-hit islands of Dublarchar.

The crowd is strangely docile, not the usual restless and line-jumping bunch you see at any relief centre. They just wait silently and patiently. They don’t look at anything, they just stare at the centre of the square where bags of food and water have been piled up for distribution.

Among the crowd sits Ali Mia, an ageless old man who still works as a fisherman. An eye gone from an accident when his trawler sank a few years ago, he still wants to eke out a living with his stringy arms and legs. He never looked for any dole-outs.

But today, Ali is here because he did not get anything to eat for the last two days. Today is the third day running, and he cannot stand it any more.

“I just need something to eat. Something to fill my tummy. Anything. There is nothing edible left on this island,” Ali says and falls silent.

Moslem had his lunch food in the morning before. He collected the rice rotten by the seawater and fried them.

“They smelled terrible. So I fried them and ate. They taste terrible,” he said.

This is how the Alor Kol fishermen and workers have been living through since the hurricane hit them with full force. Whatever food was saved from the gushing water, they shared it among themselves. And now they wait for relief.

But relief is scanty to arrive, and whatever comes is carried by the navy. Had there been no navy, Dublarchar people would have perished. And the administration is slow to wake up to the reality. In fact, the administration has very scanty idea about the people and life in the islands.

Navy ships waited the whole day today at Mongla with an empty cargo hold. But the administration did not give them any goods.

When we called the district administration office at Bagerhat in the evening, we found out to our horror that Deputy Commissioner Shahidul Islam has no idea that people live in Dublarchar. His idea is people go there only on Ras Mela scheduled for this week, an annual festival of the fishermen.

When we informed him that the official statistics say 25,000 people live in the island during the November-March peak season of fishing, he said police and magistrates of the district are staying there, coordinating relief operation.

But when it was pointed out that we have not seen any activities of the police or the civil administration, he said navy is working there and that he now learnt about the situation from us and will act accordingly.

But time is running short soon for the island archipelago that consists of eight islands. Only three islands — Alor Kol, Meher Ali and Majher Killa — have been addressed until now. But the others — Narikelbari, Office Killa, Manikkhali, Shelar Char and Chaprakhali — have not found any relief. No one exactly knows the extent of damage in these islands too.

A forest official of Narikelbari told us that the situation in that island is ‘very grave’.

But time is running short for the other islands as well.

Sumon, hardly 10-year-old, is standing, holding a bamboo pole. He came here with his father after the cyclone in search of his uncle and got stuck on the island to share the miseries of the islanders. He also did not have any food since yesterday morning.

Sumon’s pale eyes look sleepy but anxious. “Will we get food today, uncle?” he asks.

“May be, son,” the dark man standing beside him replies. “Don’t get so restless. Let the MP Shab (former lawmaker) come, we will get food.”

We walk through the crowd. Almost everywhere we find dried fish mingled with hay and sand on the ground. The hurricane had littered the fish around. And now they just lay there, wasting. They are no more fit for consumption.

But there are fresh fish being dried up too on bamboo lines. Why don’t they eat them instead of going hungry?

“No, we can’t,” answers Moslem. “They are the Bahaddar’s (trader) property. He would not allow us to touch them.”

Ramzan Sardar, a 60-year-old of Alor Kol, could save a small pack of Muri from the onslaught of waves and this is what he had for the last five days. He now has a terrible pain in his ear and has difficulty in hearing. The navy doctors gave him medicines. But he cannot take the painkiller tablets due to his empty stomach. He just looks vacantly at the tablets.

But despite everything, they will strive on. For them, life can be devastated but it cannot stop in its stride. They are the brave people of the sea and sunshine, as Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed mentioned in his short speech of encouragement to the islanders.

“You are a brave people, you have faced the calamities with valor that also gives us courage,” he said.

Brave as they are, they will sail to the sea again. One day. Until the next cyclone comes.

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