ঘূর্ণিঝড়-ও-জলোচ্ছ্বাস

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সর্ব-শেষ হাল-নাগাদ: ৯ এপ্রিল ২০১৪

ঘূর্ণিঝড় ও জলোচ্ছ্বাস

Tropical cyclones from the Bay of Bengal accompanied by storm surges are one of the major disasters in Bangladesh. The country is one of the worst sufferers of all cyclonic casualties in the world. The high number of casualties is due to the fact that cyclones are always associated with storm surges. Storm surge height in excess of 9m is not uncommon in this region. For example, the 1876 cyclone had a surge height of 13.6 m and in 1970 the height was 9.11 m (WARPO, 2005). In fact, the 1970 Cyclone is the deadliest Cyclone that has hit Bangladesh coastline. With a wind-speed of about 224 km per hour and associated storm surge of 6.1 to 9.11 Metre, it was responsible for death of about 300,000 people. A list of devastating cyclones is given in Table 1.

Major cyclones that hit the Bangladesh coast

Date		Maximum Wind speed (km/hr)	Storm Surge height (Meter)	Death Toll
11 May	1965	161	3.7-7.6	19,279
15 December	1965	217	2.4-3.6	873
01 October	1966	139	6.0-6.7	850
12 November	1970	224	6.0-10.0	300,000
25 May	1985	154	3.0-4.6	11,069
29 April	1991	225	6.0-7.6	138,882
19 May	1997	232	3.1-4.6	155
15 November (SIDR)	2007	223	--	3363
25 May (AILA)	2009	92	--	190

Source: Bangladesh Meteorological Department 2007

The cyclone sidr-2007 erupted from the Bay of Bengal packing winds of 240 kilometers per hour, swept through the southwestern coastal areas within 155-miles radius of its eye with heavy rain and storm surges reached up to 15-20 feet high in some places on 15th November'07 . According to Bangladesh Metrological Department, the Sidr's eye crossed the Khulna-Barisal coast near the Sunderbans mangrove forests around 9:30 pm ,while it crossed over the Baleshwar River in Barguna district at mid night . The coastal districts of Barisal Patuakhali, Borguna, Pirojpur, Jhalkthi, Bhola, Bagerhat, Khulna, Satkhira, Shariatpur, Chittagong and Cox’sbazar and their offshore islands and chars received the major destructions by the SIDR. Out of 12 severely affected districts 4 are the worst affected, these are Bagerhat, Barguna, Perojpur and Patuakhali.

As on the reporting period it was observed that 3,363 peoples are dead, 55,282 are injured. Approximately 5,63,877 houses are totally destroyed and 9,55,065 houses are partly damaged. It is also reported that 186,883 hectare of crop areas are fully and 498,645 hectare area partly damaged by the SIDR’2007.

Damage & Loss at a Glance:

Affected Districts	30
Most Affected Districts	12
Affected Upazila	200
Affected Union/Municipality	1,950
Affected Family	2064026
Affected People	8923259
Fully Damaged Crop Field	186,883 hectare
Partially Damaged Crop Field	498,645 hectare
Fully Damaged House	563877
Partially Damaged House	955065
Death Toll	3363
Injured Persons	55282
Missing Persons	871
Dead Cattle & Poultry	1778507
Fully Damaged Educational Institution	4231
Partially Damaged Educational Institution	12723
Fully Damaged Road	1714 km
Partially Damaged Road	6361 km
Damaged Bridge/Culvert	1687
Affected Dam	1875 km
Damaged Tree	4065316
Ferries:	28 (out of 44) (13 restored)
Electricity	33kv line- 416 km, 11 kv line 287 km
Affected tube wells	901 in 3 districts
Affected PSF (Pond sand filter)	419 nos
Affected SST(shallow shouted tubewell) VST (very shouted tubewell)	55
Forest:	US$ 5.6 Million
Death of wild life (deer)	24 nos
Roads and Highways	US$2.6 million
BWDB- embankments, sluice gates,riverbank protection structure	US$27.0 million

Govt. immediate response: The government in coordination with NGOs and international organizations, has done a commendable job in responding to the cyclone emergency and assisting the affected population. The MoFDM activated emergency response committees at the district, Upzilla, and Union levels and established an operations center in Dhaka to coordinate relief activities. Military personnel were deployed to assist with rescue operations and the distribution of food and relief services

It may pointed out that due to increase the number of population and the cattle heads, it has become essential to construct at least 2000 nos. of disaster shelters & killas in the coastal areas. Ministry of Primary & Mass Education has taken-up a programme under the project title "Primary Education Development Programme-2 (PEDP-2) " to construct 507 nos. of school-cum-shelter in the coastal areas. It is expected that about 300 shelters will also be constructed by the others Ministries, Divisions, Organizations and NGOs. Considering this the DM&RD has decided to construct the remaining 1200 Nos. of disaster shelters and killas as per recommendations of the reports of the technical committee