Hurricane Sidr: Cyclone left them all on same boat

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The Sundarbans is visible on the horizon, just on the other side of the wide Baleshwar river. Now it is very calm, no signs of devastation, just some rotten carcasses of cattle and chickens are floating on the surface.

As the engine boat reached Southkhali village through the Baleshwar, it was stinking everywhere. Not a single house was visible from the riverbank, only broken and uprooted trees littered the ground. Severe signs of devastation were everywhere around the village.

Among the bunch of people waiting on the riverbank, Abul Kashem Haolader, a former UP member stepped forward and said, “We don’t have anything left. Everyone here, both the rich and the poor, has become beggar.”

He paused for a while, took a long breath and said, “We have buried 480 people from this village. Still some dead bodies are floating in the nearby canal.”

Southkhali is the worst-hit village in the country by the cyclone Sidr.

People of the village said they had 310 families, each with five to 15 members. They have already buried 480 people, while many more are still missing.

Asked how many people are missing, Kashem said they are yet to figure that out.

The villagers said Gabtala was the biggest market in Southkhali union. Now nothing remains on the bare surface there.

Abdur Rahman used to run a big grocery shop at the market. But it was swept along with the market.

“I had one lakh and 33 thousand taka in cash and goods worth four lakh taka at my shop. Now I’ve become a beggar,” said Rahman, who lost his wife and two daughters.

Hanif Haolader was found walking on the embankment by the village. Kashem said the dead body of his wife Jainab Bibi was still floating on the river.

“Just today I found her under the hyacinths on the canal. People are now tired of burying bodies and busy in collecting whatever relief is available,” Hanif said.

“So I am not getting anyone to help me recover my wife’s body and burry her.”

During the storm, he was swimming atop the trees holding one hand of his wife, said Hanif, who had no more tears left to shed.

“Suddenly a tree hit me in the head and I fainted at once. I don’t know what happened afterwards.”

Many people around were coming forward to tell names of the missing members of their families.

In fact, no one could point out to anyone at Southkhali village who did not lose at least one of their family members.

The villagers said the newly built embankment where most of them are sleeping now was not constructed properly.

“The engineers did not make the embankment as high as it was needed, leading way to such devastation. The government should investigate the construction work,” said Kashem.

As many as 800 people could take shelter at the only standing structure now, the cyclone centre in Southkhali. The rest stayed at their houses during the storm.

“We do not have television. We did not hear any announcement from loudspeakers. So we stayed home,” said Abbas, a juvenile who lost five of his family.

“Now I have nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep,” he said.

There is no tube-well in the village. People were seen drinking water from the pond and canal where rotten fish and chickens were floating.

“An NGO has provided us with some water purification tablets. Our relatives came to visit us with some fitkerry [water purifier] what we’re using now,” said Mujibor.

“We don’t have any pots left to cook rice. How can we cook and eat,” said Momen Ara.

People from Southkhali, Bogidoshghar, Khuriakhali, Gabtala, Terabeka are spending their days in real dark in the open sky, as they do not have kerosene or candle to lit up at night.

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