Bangladesh : Stories from Cyclone Sidr

by Neeti Bhargava, Christian Aid-ACT International

[As ACT members respond and continue to assess the damage in the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr, the human loss and toll is only beginning to emerge. Neeti Bhargava, an emergency officer with Christian Aid, is in the region. She has been speaking with families and helping plan assistance for those most affected by the emergency.]

A Missing Son

Abdul Rashid sits with tears in his eyes. His 18-year-old grandson has been missing since the day Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh . The young man had gone with a group of 12 others on a boat into the “chars,” the small islands found where the Brahmaputra River delta meets the Bay of Bengal .

No one in the group has returned, and all of the efforts by Mr. Rashid’s family to locate the teenager have been unsuccessful.

“I have checked 100 bodies already,” said Abdul’s son.

Abdul seems to have lost all hope of seeing his grandson alive again. The only hope remaining is to recover the body, and even that seems like a far off possibility.

The family, from the village of Ghopkalli in the district of Berguna, has listed the grandson as missing with the government. However, the family does not have confidence that the government will be able to locate their grandson, and so they have begun their own efforts.

The district administration also admits that their own efforts are simply not enough to locate missing persons in the midst of the chaos, citing a lack of infrastructure support, such as boats.

"A day after the cyclone, there were two boats available in the area. If we had taken these boats, then people desperately trying to reach their families would have suffered,” said a local government official. “Given the situation, we are trying our best to locate the missing persons.”

Already, the official toll in this sub-district of Amtoli has surpassed 300 and the number of missing stands at 550.

A Lost Daughter

At the time of the cyclone, Jahangir, his wife and three children were in their house in the village of Ballia Toli-North . The embankment next to their home caved in, releasing a surge of water.

In order to save themselves, Jahangir, who is partially disabled, and his wife tried to climb nearby trees while carrying their children. Jagangir’s wife had two children in her hands and Jahangir had one.

With a sudden burst of water washing over them, his wife was not able to hold on to their three year old daughter, Saathi. The family’s youngest child was swept away with the water.

The next day, the family discovered her body a kilometer away from their house.

The family does not have the luxury of mourning their loss in the midst of the overwhelming circumstances. Their house has completely collapsed and their belongings have been washed away.

While they have received some support and food from the government, Jahangir and his family face difficult times ahead, with the cost of rebuilding their home coming at a time when daily labor is not expected to become available in the near future.

Agriculture work in the area is at a standstill, with many of the crops destroyed. Also, most boats and nets are damaged or lost, further straining livelihood opportunities. Complicating his situation, the fact that Janhangir does not have full use of his legs places limitations on the kinds of work he can do.

Jahangir laments that he, like others in his village, had no firm information that a cyclone was approaching. The little information they had was not taken seriously, because, in the past, government volunteers conducted special emergency awareness sessions for significant impending crises. This time, it was not done.

A Challenging Future

Abdul Halim and his family barely escaped the cyclone. At the time the storm hit their village of Ghopkalli , the family was in their house. The breach in the nearby embankment unleashed a fury of gushing water onto their home.

Clinging to empty water containers became their only means of survival.

Abdul recalls, “I had my five month old son in my hand and [water containers] in the other. I was powerless against the water. Finally, I was dropped on land three kilometers from my house.”

Abdul Halim has suffered heavy losses. His shop, along with all its goods, has been washed away. His house has collapsed. He has cobbled together a makeshift shelter for the family, but he says, ‘This might help us for the present, but what will happen during the monsoons?’

In spite of not being a poor person, Halim says that he is just as vulnerable as others. He has lost all his capital. The material in his shop was bought on credit, and he now has loans to repay with nothing to sell or any means to earn an income.

There is no one who will lend him money now, and no one in the area has the money to lend given their own losses. Like others in the village, his family is dependant largely upon aid for survival in the coming months.