Left without food, they look for relief

Thousands of people displaced by Cyclone Roanu that ravaged the Chittagong-Noakhali coasts on Saturday could not return to their badly damaged homesteads till Monday evening and were passing days without food.
The civil administration, however, claimed that they had enough relief in stock and were distributing them in the affected areas.
An elderly woman, who was injured during the cyclone, when a roof collapsed on her in village Uttar Panghashia of Dhumki in Patuakhali, died on way to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Sunday afternoon, taking the death toll to 25 in the calamity.
The Department of Agricultural Extension estimated that standing crops on about 54,000 hectares of lands were affected by the cyclone. The affected major crops were aus samplings, aus seedbeds, seedlings of transplanted aman, late boro plants, vegetables, sesame, betel leafs and banana plants, said DAE officials.
Thousands of people have been marooned by flood waters in Cox’s Bazar, Patuakhali, Lakshmipur, Feni, Barguna, Chandpur, Jhalokathi and Bagerhat. Some of them were passing days under the open sky or
at the cyclone shelters without food and water.
Chittagong deputy commissioner Mesbah Uddin said that thousands of people could not yet return home as many areas were still under water. ‘District administration is distributing food in the affected areas,’ he added.
According to the administration, many villages were inundated by salty water that entered overflowing the embankments or after embankments were washed away till Monday, three days after the cyclone had hit the areas.
On Monday, people were seen waiting in long queues for relief at Anwara and Banshkhali upazilas.
Around five hundred people gathered at CG Station of Coast Guard at Anwara, around 30 kilometers off the Chittagong city, at the news that relief and disaster management minister would visit the area.
Ayub Ali, 65, who came from village Chunnapara, seeing journalists started weeping for relief.
‘Sir please put my name on your list so that I can get some relief. Me and members of my family are without food for the last three days,’ said the elderly man.
Jebel Hossain, 45, of village Goira said his dwelling place was damaged by the surge and he did not get any relief from any authorities till Monday.
Farida Begum, 40, who was staying at the coast guard station cyclone shelter, said she could not return home as it was still under water.
She, however, felt lucky that she got Tk 1,000 and 10 kg rice from the relief and disaster management minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.
Most of the houses of village Premashia of Khankhanabad union at Banshkhali were damaged by the tidal surge.
Locals said Cyclone Roanu took the lives of five people of the area.
Md Imran, 30, a local businessman, said union parishad distributed five sacks of flattened rice in the area where over 1,500 families live.
He said most of the people of the area are passing days without food.
Fatema Khatun, 50, whose tin-shed house blew away, said she did not get any relief till Monday.
‘One of my relatives sent some cooked food on Sunday for my family. We living still on that food,’ said Fatema.
Md Ibrahim, 60, said eight feet tidal surge swept the area while local administration claimed that the surge was of four feet height.
Chittagong district administration said in a press release on Sunday that they had already distributed 198 tonnes of rice and cash amounting to Tk 7,70,000 among the worst-affected people.
New Age correspondent in Bhola reported that members of around 300 families in Tamijuddin area were passing their days under the open sky as their houses were wiped out by the cyclone.
There is a severe shortage of food and pure drinking water in the areas.
Upazila nirbahi officer of Tamijuddin thana said that the government allocated Tk 1 lalkh and 10 tonnes of rice, which was too inadequate for the need.
‘We have nowhere to go and nothing to eat. For the last two days, we are starving,’ said Yousuf of village Shashiganj of the upazila.
A senior official at Department of Agricultural Extension field service wing told New Age on Monday that assessment of crop damage was still under process and it would take a few more days to get final report.
DAE officials said that Cyclone Roanu affected the crops in six districts under Barisal division and five districts in Chittagong division.
Mujibul Huq Bachchu, general secretary of Kutubdia Samity, at a press conference in Chittagong city on Monday called upon the government to begin emergency relief distribution in the affected area.
Among other demands, they wanted repair and reconstruction of religious institutions ahead of Ramadan.
Disaster management and relief minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya on Sunday said breach of ‘brittle’ dams by storm surge caused losses of lives and properties in cyclone Roanu.
He was speaking at a ‘district disaster management meeting’ in Chittagong.
‘Fragile dams let the storm surge kill people in the residential areas. Many lives, crops, livestock, farms, houses could be saved had the dams been built properly,’ he said.
‘The damage, however, was not as big as we had feared,’ he added.