Raphael Palma of World Vision Bangladesh has just returned from the south – the area worst affected by the cyclone.  He normally works in Dhaka but left for Kulna division the day before the storm hit in order to share the impact with others.  On the night of the storm he was trapped on a car ferry boat on the Padma River.  This is his account of the destruction he saw after getting off the ferry and World Vision’s response:

WI have just come back from Bangladesh’s coastal area, visiting Kulna division, which is one of the areas worst affected by the cyclone. It is where a lot of fishermen and fisheries workers live.  Kulna is a very poor area and it is the poor who were most affected by this cyclone.

The poor people typically live in wood and bamboo homes. Ninety percent of these homes were destroyed or badly damaged.  The impact of the storm was incredible.

The roofs were ripped off their houses, their winter garden vegetables were destroyed, educational institutions damaged and livestock killed. Many of the children lost their schoolbooks. Many people now have nothing.  Almost everyone’s homes, apart from the concrete ones were damaged.

There was unbelievable destruction. I saw trees ripped out of the ground or broken and could not image how it was that such huge trees had been uprooted.

I was told that most of the children were in a panic during the storm. Some saw their relatives killed by trees that fell on their homes – or saw dead bodies.  Seeing dead bodies was something many of the children had never seen before. They are still somehow traumatized and need support.

This support is being provided by family members and by World Vision staff who have been comforting the families and trying to give them hope during the food distributions we have done.

The cyclone struck between late Thursday night and very early Friday morning.  When the light came up World Vision staff immediately went out to assess the damage, going from house to house recording which homes were destroyed or damaged. Many people’s lives were saved because the day because, on Thursday, staff and 130 volunteers trained by World Vision went around with loud speakers and went door to door to encourage people to get to the cyclone shelters.

After the storm had passed - on Friday evening - we brought in a truck of rice and sugar and gave 1 kg or sugar or molasses and 2 kg of flattened rice to 500 families in Mongla sub-district. Our staff worked all day all day and into the night to help the people.

When I interviewed some of the families who survived, they would cry, saying they have nothing and that all they have left is one or two days’ of food because their winter crops have been destroyed. They have to restart their lives, their faming – everything.

I felt very sad.  I could not imagine that in one night everything would be gone.

People first need food and medical treatment.  People were injured by trees falling on homes or debris that blew about.  People suffered from cuts and I was told some people had broken bones.

In Kulna the poor earn only 80 to 150 taka a day (about US$1.00 to $2.00).  They are daily labourers who work on the fishing boats, port workers and porters, rickshaw pullers and crop field workers.  They earn little more than they need for that day’s food.

The people are in a tragic position. Some people really could not speak about their losses.  Now they expect some support in terms of relief materials and housing materials.  This is the tradition around here.

People are trying to repair their homes or building temporary shelters out of straw, sticks and bamboo or putting up tents. But these are only for a few days and this is not a permanent solution.

I talked to fishermen whose lives are normally miserable and who are treated like slaves by the boat bosses.  Even though there were warnings that the cyclone was coming they were not allowed to come back to land without the permission of those rich bosses who own the boats.  That is why so many fishermen died.

Now the deep-sea fishing boats that survived are coming back.  I saw the wives standing on the shore waiting for their men to come home, wondering if their husbands were dead. Those people said there were dead bodies on the boats that have been coming back.

Fishermen often go out to sea for five months at a time. If they come back earlier, before the end of their contracts, they do not get paid. Bosses knew the storm was coming but did no allow the boats back in.

I spoke to one fisherman whose boat had capsized. He had been in the water for 20 hours with another 14 fishermen from his boat before they were rescued by another trawler.  When he was rescued he was so cold he said he had lost all feeling and they had to burn kerosene on board the boat to warm him up.

Now what you see on land is people clearing the roads, cutting up trees that have fallen and taking them away. The government workers are mending the power lines and people are fixing shelters and homes.

Luckily this cyclone was not as devastating at the one back in 1991. One grocery shop owner who lost everything told me that in 1991 there had been an enormous surge of water that traveled far inland and that had killed many. He said the winds for this cyclone were stronger but the surge was weak.  Despite the devastation, that could be counted as one small blessing.

Go to Bangladesh cyclone webpage