Hurricane Sidr: Long furious night at Southkhali

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Waters sprang up atop the trees, said Monira.
“We don’t know how come we are still alive,” she added.
A housewife from Southkhali village, Monira does not care about relief. She does not go around telling everyone how badly she and her family have been affected. She just stares blankly at the people visiting their village.

With a soul heavy with the shock and grief of losing a son, she let it all out when this correspondent on a visit to see first hand the devastation wrought by the November 15 cyclone asked her about what it was like during the monster storm.

“We do not have television or radio. There was no warning for us of the impending doom. So we could not grasp the severity and just stayed indoors,” she said.

It was raining hard and the weather was getting rougher as the day approached dusk. “With my two sons and husband, I was in the house till the evening. When we saw waters rushing towards our room, we decided to leave and look for a safer place,” she said.

“The moment we got out of our room, a giant wave swept us away.

My elder son Babu was with me and Jihad, the younger one, was with his father,” she continued.

“Within seconds, I saw the waters leapt halfway up those Bettlenut trees,” Monira said pointing at a bunch of trees tall not less than 30 feet.

As everything else surrounding them was already under water, they had no alternative but to swim towards the trees. “Soon I stumbled across a trawler floating by and helped my son onto it. Then I rode the wave and at some point managed to take shelter on the top of a tree,” she recollected.

“By the time I got to the tree I found there was nothing left to cover my body. Stripped naked, I was shivering with cold and fear. I felt like I was dying,” she said adding, “It was like a never-ending nightmare, an end of the world.”

She managed to hang on till the end of the night.

Monira still wonders how she survived the longest night. “As the dawn broke, I heard my husband Masud Mia calling by my name.”

He said Jihad, our younger son, was missing. But before we could give ourselves some time to grieve for the son lost, they had to look for some cloth to wear. They managed some from dead bodies.

Bodies were everywhere. Those who managed to survive were crying and calling for their relatives.

“You won’t believe. My son was like a kid officer. I don’t feel like doing anything but spend my time remembering the days with my little one,” said Monira as tears rolled down.

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