The New Nation - Internet Edition

Notwithstanding the successful operation of the cyclone preparedness programme that has hopefully helped limit human casualties to a minimum possible figure by way of four days of advance warning given at regular intervals and house-to-house alarm messages reached by 40,000 volunteers of the CPP, the loss of life and property caused by super cyclone SIDR has been colossal. Now a dynamic rescue, relief and rehabilitation scheme has to be in place to coordinate the post-cyclone response of the government, the people, the international community and the affected people themselves to put them back on the regular chores of life as soon as possible. The government has announced its immediate allocations for supporting the suffering people in five worst affected districts. More allocations would be made as a total picture of the devastation caused by the worst cyclone in 16 years would emerge from the remote and inaccessible areas most battered by the 240-kilometres-an-hour winds and the storm surge that the cyclone generated. As reported, the cyclone caused damage to 95 per cent of the standing Aman paddy crops right at the time of their harvest, and also to the winter vegetables crops that had started coming to markets pushing their prices down.

The cyclone affected people need urgent supply of food and drinking water to remain alive and also help not only to rebuild their battered homes but also to resume cultivation of crops and work in other professions, vocations and trades to earn income and be on their own again. This is a gigantic task because the number of affected people runs into nearly 20 million in the worst affected districts of Barguna, Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Jhalakathi and Pirojpur alone. Loss of life and damage of property were reported from as far away placed as Dhaka where the maximum wind speed was reported to be more than 100 kilometres an hour.

Such a huge relief and rehabilitation programme is difficult for the government alone to plan and implement. Although the armed forces have been helping the government in a big way, response from the community also needs to be well-coordinated with a view to ensuring that their donations in aid of the cyclone affected people reach those who need help most. In the past, active participation of neighbours of the affected families helped them to overcome the loss and immediate sufferings. The built-in disaster management capabilities developed since the 1970 cyclone should be put in full gear with ready support coming from the armed forces in aid of the civil administration.

Staff Reporter

The confirmed total death toll in the affected areas, where the super severe cyclone Sidr had hit, rose to 3,018 while 12,500 persons were injured and 57 others remained missing till 11:30pm yesterday.

However, unoffical sources claimed the death figures would be even higher and may reach 10,000 and the number of injured thrice the death figure, according to the dispatches sent yesterday by reporters from the devastated areas.

Most of the deaths were caused by drowing in tidal surge and collapsing houses and falling trees. Armed Forces Division at a press briefing said that as many as 93 maritime vessels with crew sunk in the cyclone hit regions. Of these five were ships, 73 trawlers and 25 passenger launches.

In the coastal areas of the worst hit districts, inummerable corpses are seen floating in the sea, rivers and other water bodies, while the survivors wailing for their lost dear ones and passing their days without food or drinking water in anticiaption of receivng relief under the open sky.

Meanwhile, thousands of volunteers and members of the Armed Forces have were launched a massive rescue and relief operation from Friday. The number of Armed Forces personnel pressed into service was raised further yesterday, when 3,000 more troops were desptached for the operation in addition to those already stationed in the affected areas.

The Red Crescent Society deployed about 42,000 volunteers, while major NGOs and local administration the rest.

Military ships and helicopters were trying to reach thousands of survivors in the remote islands of the Bay of Bengal amid rough waters yesterday. The Armed Forces’ ship and helicopters, equipped with sufficient dry food, drinking water, medicines and medical supplies, are the only hope for the survivors of these areas, according to reports recived in the capital last night.

Navy ships scoured the coastal areas for hundreds of people reported missing and to clear river channels clogged with sunken vessels. Helicopters flew sorties to the devastated areas, dropping food, drinking water and medicine for the survivors.

The storm Sidr generated on November 12 coincided with the century’s worst cyclone on the same day in 1970 that killed about a million people in the coastal areas.

The cyclone, which followed devastating floods in July and September that killed more than 1,000, gave a severe blow to the country’s economy which is suffering from serious price hike and inflation.

Cyclone SIDR smashed into the country's southern coastline late Thursday night with a wind speed of 185 to 250 killometres per hour (kmph) depending on distance of the areas covered by its eye. The cyclone ravaged the Dublar Char and part of the Sundarbans at a windspeed of 250 kmph, whipping up a 20 feet tidal surge, weather experts said.

The radius of the massive cyclone, which had the same destructive strength of the Hurricane Caterina, passed through central parts of the country, hitting 34 of the country’s 64 districts. Eleven of the 15 coastal districts were hit hard. Of these five districts were ravaged most.

“We could not find a single family, which has not lost a member in the worst ravaged areas,” a reporter told over military wirless last night.

Standing aman and robi crop of at least a few millions hacters of land were totally smashed and tens of thousands of houses destroyed. Electricity supply and telecommunications could not be restored till yesterday.

“It will take several days to complete the search and know the actual casualty figure and extent of damage to property,” Ministry of Food and Disaster Management Secretary Mohammad Ayub Miah told journalists.

Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munayem said the Tk 35 crore in cash was sent to the most affected districts yesterday from the Chief Adviser’s Relief Fund.

Chief Adviser Dr Fakruddin Ahmed along with Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed visited a number of affected districts for the second day yesterday. They talked to the victims and distrbuted relief materials.

Top leaders of different political parties, including the BNP and the Awami League, asked their activists across the country to stand by the cyclone victims in full force.

Aid officials described the damage from the storm, which blew away homes and ripped trees and power lines, as extremely severe. Most of the country plunged into darkness on Friday after the electricity grid was knocked out.

Many parts of Dhaka, the capital city of 10 million people, were still without power and water supply yesterday.

Red Crescent and local administration officials said some 3,500 fishermen were still unaccounted for in the Bay of Bengal, on about 150 boats. Fishing community leaders in Cox's Bazar and Barisal said they still expected some missing crew to return to the shore.

The Sundarbans, home to the endangered Royal Bengal tigers and a World Heritage site, took the brunt of the latest storm and forest officials said many animals would have died.

The category 4 cyclone devastated three coastal towns - Patuakhali, Barguna, Bagerhat and Jhalakathi - and forced 3.2 million people to evacuate. It lost strength after landfall and passed over the country early on Friday, weather officials said.

BSS, Dhaka

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday directed all concerned to work round the clock without any negligence to mitigate the sufferings of the cyclone-hit people of the country including the coastal area.

He gave the direction while presiding over a special meeting of the council of advisers held at his office reviewing the post cyclone rescue and relief operations and rehabilitation programme.

The Chief Adviser asked the concerned authorities to take steps in restoration of road communication, setting up satellite telephone in the affected areas where telecommunications were disrupted due to cyclone and restoration of power supply in an urgent basis.

In this connection, he directed the power, telecommunication and communication secretaries to work in a coordinated manner to reduce the sufferings of the affected areas.

Laying emphasis on distribution of relief materials among the cyclone victims, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed said, the government has sufficient stock of relief goods which are being distributed in the affected districts assessing the needs of the people.

He also asked the local administration to further assess theextent of damage immediately so that government could provide assistance for the victims as per their needs.

The Chief Adviser said that his government also put special emphasis on reconstruction of damaged houses in the affected areas and Taka 35 crore has already been allocated for this purpose.

Earlier, Disaster Management and Relief secretary Ayub Mia made a presentation at the meeting on the extent of damages caused by the devastating cyclone that lashed over the country on Thursday night.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim said, a total of 23 districts in the coastal area were more or less affected by the cyclone.

Of them, he said, 12 districts were badly affected where standing crops, dwelling houses were damaged and trees were uprooted. The worst affected 12 districts are- Patuakhali, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Barisal, Barguna, Jhalakathi, Bhola, Madaripur, Sariatpur, Gopalganj, Khulna and Satkhira.

Staff Reporter

The country will have to experience power shortage for three more days, as the power generation, its supply and distribution systems are still disrupted after the National Power Grid (NPG) tripped following cyclone SIDR Thursday night, Bangladesh Power Development (PDB) sources said.

Due to the power crisis people's sufferings mounted as it prompted water crisis and disruption in communication systems, including mobile phone, telephone, television and internet connections.

Transportation system was also affected, as the pump stations remained closed due to power failure.

PDB official sources said, after the NPG failure, they could generate the highest 2,008 megawatt (MW), half of the expected total generation capacity of 4,000 MW, while the demand is 5,200 MW. PDB's target was to generate 2,900 MW power by Sunday morning.

Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (DESA) sources said it was given the highest 900 MW power last night against its demand of 1,600 MW.

PDB officials said during the NPG failure, its power generation capacity was zero watt. They could generate highest 760 MW till 9:00pm on Friday, 1540 MW in the morning on Saturday and 2008 MW in the evening.

According to sources, many of the power plants could not be put into operation, while several others could not generate power according to their capacities.

An engineer of the PDB said most of the Independent Power Plants (IPP), non-government power plants, including 370-MW Haripur and Baghabari power plant, could not operate. Besides, several others could not generate power according to their capacities.

DESA official sources said it was given a total of 550 MW during daytime on Saturday and 900 MW at night. Although it was too little compared to the demand, it had to distribute this power to its 34 divisions, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO) and Rural Electrification Board (REB). The REB in Dhaka also distributes power to nearby Gazipur, Joydevpur and other adjoining areas.

PDB officials said as the supply and distribution system are damaged, they had fixed the target to generate power around 3,000 MW. The most damaged areas are South and Southwestern zones of the country.

Due to the power disruption, water crisis in the city as well as the other urban areas in the country was severe. Most of the residential areas remained without water, as the Water and Sewerage Authority could not supply water.

Communication networks and systems were affected, as thousands of electric and telephone poles and towers across the country, mostly in the coastline areas, were uprooted. Electric, telephone, dish and internet lines were torn apart disconnecting all kinds of communications.

Pump stations and CNG stations remained closed due to the power crisis. Hundreds of thousands of motorised vehicles had to remain stranded on queues for hours on Friday and Saturday.

Staff Reporter

The devastating cyclone SIDR has damaged Aman paddy of nearly 5 lakh hectares of land on Thursday night, which will cost the country a deficit of 6 lakh metric tones.

An Agriculture Ministry meeting yesterday revealed that the volume of loss of crops might increase once the comprehensive report is available within the next 10 days.

This year the government set a production target of 1.30 crore MTs of Aman paddy. The second phase of flood had damaged crops of a big area of land for which the government fears 10 lakh MT less production of Aman paddy.

Agriculture Adviser CS Karim in the meeting with the heads of the different depart ments under the ministry emphasised on Boro and Mug dal cultivation to overcome the loss.

The Adviser asked the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials to supply adequate agri inputs so that the farmers can produce Boro and Mug dal to over come the losses.

The meeting, which was also attended by three retired director generals of the DAE, decided to seek extra funds based on the comprehensive reports to be submitted within the next 10 days. Rehabilitation programmes for the farmers will also be taken based on the report.

However, the DAE is yet to estimate the loss of other crops but is working on it.

Agriculture Secretary Abdul Aziz, former DAE DGs Ibrahim Khalil, Abdur Razzaq and Md Rahimuddin were present, among others, on the occasion.

Our Narsingdi correspondent said cyclone SIDR has damaged crops of 24,000 hectares of land. District DAE office said banana plantation of 1594 hectares of land, transplanted Aman of 18,730 hectares and winter vegetables of 3,095 hectares of land have been damaged by the devastating cyclone.

Pulack Ghatack

Economic crises have been exacerbating with emergence of spectre of a food crisis, for the hurricane Sidr has damaged crops in millions of acres of farmland in the country.

Since Bangladesh's economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, the catastrophic cyclone would affect the GDP growth making the targeted 7 per cent GDP growth in this fiscal year a far cry.

Inflation that hit a record-high of 10.1 per cent in July, spurred by massive summer floods and higher global food prices, is likely to go up further. Budget deficit may widen, as the Government will have to shift its budgetary allocations for extra food import, economic experts said.

Food, though, is expensive for poor people, is still available in the market. But in the days ahead, people, if they have enough money to buy, will not find enough commodities in the market due to the latest natural disaster.

So, market remains as the main concern before the economic policy-makers, leading economic analysts of the country opined. The Government, anyhow, will have to ensure smooth supply of commodities curbing a possible distortion in the market mechanism they suggested.

The government will have to import more food items and other commodities to ensure sufficient supply in the market.

The extra-import no doubt will put pressure on current account balance. But the government at present has no alternative to it. Otherwise, the crisis may deepen to a humanitarian catastrophe.

Sidr has damaged bazars and shopping centres. The exact figure of losses is yet to be assessed, officials said. But, according to information gathered through various sources, primary economic structures have been demolished in many areas of the country. Hundred per cent mud houses have collapsed in some of the areas.

Families have lost crops and livestock, houses and roads have been destroyed and livelihoods and schooling have been disrupted. The worst of it is the wide-ranging damage of ripe crops on the eve of harvesting, impact of which will be felt across the country shortly.

Anybody who has to buy food in order to eat is going to feel the pinch, but the bite will be the sharpest for the urban slum dwellers and the landless rural poor, neither of whom have the ability to produce their own food.

Because of the massive damage to rice crop monga (a seasonal famine like situation) in northern districts is likely to claim far more victims than usual this year.

About 40 per cent of the country's lands was inundated in the annual flooding few months back. Crops on 1.6 million acres of farmlands were completely or partially damaged and the country was striving to absorb the shock.

Noted economist Dr Atiur Rahman said in designing relief and rehabilitation responses, emphasis must be given to addressing the potential risks of long-term food insecurity.

"The Aman paddy target has already failed. Now the government will have to make its best efforts to get the highest harvest from Boro paddy and winter crops to avoid any possible food deficit in the country," he said.

If external assistance does not come adequately budget deficit will increase, for the government will have to shift its budgetary allocation for food import, he observed.

Agricultural analyst of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Uttam Kumar Deb said, "We are yet to assess the amount of flood damage. But the cost is going to be massive. Food security is going to be a challenge over the next few months,"

He, however, was optimistic to say that early steps could save the country from the spectre of food crisis, as ongoing budget has enough allotment to deal with food crisis and the country is expecting substantial foreign assistance.

Staff Reporter

Armed Forces Division (AFD) yesterday said that the members of the armed forces has been continuing its effort to rescue operation in cyclone hit areas and assisting the civil administration in distribution of relief materials, restoring communications and power, providing treatment and carrying out rehabilitation activities.

Our prime focus is to assist the civil administration to rescue the cyclone victims, carrying out relief distribution and rehabilitation programmes, said Brig Gen Qazi Abidus Samad, Director of Operation and Plans Directorate while briefing journalists at the AFD operations room.

Asked whether two US assault ships are coming to Bangladesh to help the country in its rescue operation and rehabilitation programmes, Abidus Samad said US Embassy in Dhaka communicated with them.

Transport can be a great help at this moment to carry out reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes. We may take assistance from our friendly countries. But decision will be taken at the top-level of the government. We will welcome foreign assistance, if the government takes a decision in this regard, he said.

He said, we would try to utilize our own assets first to deal with the post-cyclone situation and if necessary we could take help from other countries interested to assist us.

Abidus Samad said the US Embassy informed them two visiting medical teams, now in Dhaka, are ready to provide medical assistance in cyclone hit areas. The teams are on way to USA after completion of their medical assistance programmes in Comilla.

He said the AFD has already four medical teams in the cyclone-hit areas and two more teams would be sent today.

The AFD also coordinate the NGO activities to avoid duplication in relief distribution and rehabilitation activities.

Earlier, Lt Col Mainullah Chowdhury of the AFD highlighted the activities being carried out by the Army, Navy and Air Force in cyclone-hit areas.

He said the AFD has already sent and distributed 66 metric tones of relief materials in the remote areas utilizing 12 helicopters and three cargo plans.

Mainullah said the AFD has opened a monitoring cell in Dhaka to maintain communication department concerned and coordinate in its activities round the clock.

He said the AFD has the plan to assist the civil administration in its relief distribution and rehabilitation programmes, providing medical assistance and housing materials to the affected people, setting out temporary shelter stations and restoring power, communication and IT system.

Director General of Relief and Disaster Management Directorate Sadruddin Ahmed was present during the press briefing.