Cyclone sidr and my experience

By Taslima Akter

Bangladesh swallowed by terrible Cyclone again after 1991. The name of this cyclone is sidr. Sidr’s blew all Bangladesh with coastal area. The costal areas of Bangladesh were mass of ruins in one night. Today is 11th day of sidr. Inferential in this cyclone there are 40 million people and 9 million residential house partially or fully sustain. There are million people distressed and passing their life fearfully. Million people are passing their night under the open sky and there is very grave position of women and children. Although many organization and generous people are helping the distressed people but that is not sufficient for all. I want to share my little experience with Nari Jibon blog readers:

Thursday (15.12.07) morning at 6:30am we caused to depart to the Sylhet. I and my family traveled to Sylhet for visiting the Sahjalal Mazar (one of the famous Mazar of Bangladesh). On Wednesday whole day the sky was cloudy and we heard the news from television and read the news about cyclone. But we didn’t thought that how horrible this cyclone sidr might be. Thursday morning sky was very cloudy and strong wind was blowing with rain. Driver was driven the car slowly. We reached in Sylhet at 1:00pm. I sat beside the window of the car and seeing outside scenery. When we reached in Sylhet it was raining heavily and strong wind was blowing all around. We reached to the mazar wet in rain. When I stayed in Mazar I felt peace in my heart and forget everything about bad weather. I received a phone call from Rafiq Bhai (director of Nari Jibon project) and knew about situation of Dhaka and also informed that tomorrow (Friday) the office will be closed due to cyclone sidr. Then I afraid and wanted to returned to Dhaka hurry. Gradually the weather was becoming very bad in Sylhet area.

After having lunch we took sit in bus at 3:30pm. That journey was long journey in my life and I enjoyed the journey but also was afraid of upcoming cyclone situation. I enjoyed the natural beauty of sylhet and thought how beautiful is Bangladesh. In bus we heard a bad news of an bus accident and where 3 people are dead and more 20 people injured. After hearing this news we were very much anxious. Driver had driven the car slowly and carefully. When we crossed the Sylhet area, we found that car which one fall in accident. We can understand that the driver could not control the car for strong wind and rain. When we crossed Brahmonbaria area, we saw 2 other accident and after seeing this we got frightened and were counting the time when we could reach to Dhaka.

We reached to Dhaka at 9:30PM. We thanked the al mighty Allah that we could reached Dhaka safely but we didn’t know that we have to face inconvenient situation. When we were looking for transport to reach to our resident we could not get any. Every one was trying to reach their home fast because that time wind was so strong and it was raining cats and dogs. We can’t decide what we will do and we had to walk not getting any transport. I faced this situation in my life first. That was awful night for me. I walked in footpath holding my fathers hand and was seeing the situation of street people. They didn’t have any safe place to passed the terrible night. They were wetting in rain and sitting wrapping poly-thin in their body. At last we reached our home fully wet in rain. I felt pain in my legs. After taking dinners we tried to sleep but could not due to for roaring of cyclone.

At about 3:00am I got a phone call from my aunty she informed us that some robber attacked her house and tried to broken the door. She shouted but nobody heard her voice due to strong wind and rain. We were very much worried about her. And that time mobile network was almost down and sometimes we didn’t get her mobile connection due to network problem. Finally we got to know that the robber could not enter her house and we got rid of tension. We passed that night fearfully. I and my family became sick as we had to wet in rain. On Friday I took rest all day long. We had to face the electricity and water problem.

Saturday morning I came to Nari Jibon office. I saw the newspaper and knew that how the cyclone sidr destroyed the costal area of our country and thousands of people killed, thousands of house destroyed and damaged crops of thousands hectors. If we compare the cyclone with the cyclone of 1991 then we could see in this year more crops & houses are damaged but less people are killed this year. We are seeing in TV and news paper that many national and international organizations are helping the cyclone victims along with Bangladesh govt.