Cyclone Remal: 400,000 people affected, 50,000 houses destroyed in Khulna

The severe cyclonic storm ‘Remal’ affected 400,000 people, damaging 50,000 homesteads, uprooting trees, breaking electric and telephone poles, causing a wind-driven surge inundating a vast area of the Sundarbans and embankments in low-lying regions, an official said.

“At least 400,000 people of 68 unions in nine upazilas of Khulna have been affected by ‘Remal’,” said district relief and rehabilitation officer Md. Abdul Karim.

“Hundreds of shrimp enclosures have been washed away, a huge number of thatched houses and standing crops were damaged while trees, electricity and telephone poles were uprooted. Many villages were also submerged by the tidal surge,” he added.

Khulna district administration, Mongla Port authority, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Coast Guard (BCG) of Mongla West Zone, fire service and civil defence are working to rehabilitate the affected coastal people.

As part of the immediate response, more than 200,000 people were successfully evacuated and moved to 604 cyclone centres before the ‘Remal’ hit the region, said deputy commissioner of Khulna Khondokar Yasir Arefin.

Over 5,500 volunteers of different organisations, including Red Crescent and CPP, are working in different regions, he said.

Khondokar Yasir Arefin added that 1,100 more volunteers from non-government organisations (NGOs) are also working in 168 medical teams with health workers working at cyclone affected upazilas.

Abdul Karim claimed that the “fear of major disaster” due to severe cyclonic storm is mostly over as the district administration took appropriate precautionary measures to cope with the disaster.

He, however, said in some places, fallen trees have halted traffic.

No casualty is reported due to the storm as a few people were injured in coastal areas.

Abdul Karim said about 250,000 tonnes of rice, Tk 500,000 in cash and 2,000 packets of dry food have, so far, been distributed in Koyra, Dacope and Paikgachha upazilas.

The operation of Mongla port has already resumed, said Md. Makruzzaman, secretary of Mongla Port Authority (MPA).

“No damage has been recorded here as the port authority had taken massive preparation earlier,” he added.

Talking to BSS, Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, DFO of Sundarbans West, said the intensity of damage in the Sundarbans could not be known immediately.

Around 61 kilometres of embankments in Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat have been damaged partially, Water Development Board (WDB) officials said.

Hundreds of villages in Koyra, Paikgachha and Dacope upazilas of Khulna were inundated due to heavy rain and saline water that entered by breaking embankments in different points, sub-divisional engineer Liakat Ali of WDB confirmed.

Koyra upazila UNO Tarik Uzzaman and Bedkashi Union Parishad chairman Abdullah Al Mamun said villagers are voluntarily trying to repair embankments to stop intruding saline water.

Electricity supply was hampered in different coastal villages till filing of this report, sources said.