Cyclone Sidr Hits Bangladesh: This Time It’s Enamul’s Call
By Philip Shaw M.Sc.
It’s called Katka, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It lies on the shore of the Indian Ocean as it laps up against the Sunderbans forest in Bangladesh, the largest mangrove forest in the world. However, I don’t know if its still there. As the world knows, last month Cyclone Sidr slammed into the Sunderbans not far from Katka causing widespread destruction and loss of life.
When I was considering what to write about this month I was thinking about global warming. Made sense to me, in Canada this time of year it starts to get real cold. So we could use a little global warming. In the process of organizing my thoughts the Sunderbans had come to mind. Global warming has caused water levels to rise there increasing the salinity within the forest causing all kinds of angst for the flora and fauna to say nothing about the people who live on its fringes. So when Cyclone Sidr took aim on Katka, I can only imagine the destruction.
For those of you who follow my career you know part of this story. Remember the Tiger? Yes, in 2003, I traveled two and one half days by plane, a few hours by bus and 48 hours by boat to get to Katka. After all that time within the first five minutes of reaching shore I see a Royal Bengal Tiger, something most Bangladeshis only dream about. Regrettably because of Cyclone Sidr, I’m sure the gnat, which we docked at, and the watchtower where we saw the Tiger are gone. Of course who knows what happened to the Katka Tiger? I’m sure Sidr cut a wide swath through the Sunderban’s diverse wildlife.
It’s pretty obvious when it comes to Cyclone Sidr and its destruction; it’s Enamul’s call. How can I do it justice sitting 15,000 miles away when my partner in crime experienced it first hand? No, Dhaka where he lives isn’t Katka, but I’m sure he felt the wind, rain, and experienced the power outages, which were widespread throughout the country.
Within these paragraphs each month Enamul and I discuss the lofty ideals, which govern global economics and politics. However, “debating the issues” often turns to how “the politics” sours the economics. So at a time when a natural disaster turns a country like Bangladesh upside down, its important to notice the international aid which starts to flow to the affected area.
At this writing $450 million has been pledged in international aid. The American navy is off the coast preparing to help the Bangladesh military coordinate getting fresh water and medical aid into areas cut off. Canada has responded with $3 million of aid, to say nothing about the large Bangladeshi Canadian Diaspora, which is sending private aid. In many ways natural disasters around the world bring out the best in people.
However, finding good in this disaster is an end game. There is surely good to spread around, but with the death count over 3000 and the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society saying it could top 10,000, lets not kid ourselves. There have been worse cyclones to hit Bangladesh, but Sidr was bad enough. Bangladeshi preparedness since those other cyclones have helped save lives. (In 1970 the Great Bhola Cyclone took 550,000 lives)
I’ll leave the rest of this piece up to Enamul. Nobody can give you a snapshot of really what’s going on but him. However, I’ll say this. I’ve been to Bangladesh three times and I’m planning my fourth. One thing I’ve learned. The Bangladeshi people are resilient. They survive despite at times devastating poverty, political instability and natural disasters, which would make most in the west recoil. This time will be no different. However, what happened shouldn’t be put aside. For many people in places like far off Katka, the heavy burden caused by Cyclone Sidr was and continues to be a crushing blow.
Cyclone, Cyclone Shelter, Cyclone Relief
By Dr. A. K. Enamul Haque Ph.D
A fierce cyclone that has whipped up tidal waves wreaked havoc and destruction on Bangladesh’s southwestern coast on November 16, 2007 (early hours). The average speed of the storm was between 220 and 240 km per hour. The storm was one of the strongest in a century. However, we must be very happy that the casualties were much lower than what is usually expected from this size of storm in Bangladesh. Once again it shows the efficiency of the disaster preparedness programs of the Government of Bangladesh.
For coastal Bangladeshis, cyclones are a routine matter. It happens twice a year. In April the first series of storms usually hit Bangladesh and the second series of cyclones come in November. I remember one of my Nepali students wanted to go to the Sundarbans in late October this year. I was telling her that she should avoid traveling to coastal lands at this time.
Compared to the April 29 1991 cyclone, this was a much bigger cyclone but in 1991 nearly 138,000 people died. The comparison is important to understand the value of a good disaster preparedness program. However, when I analyze the impact of the cyclone and events afterwards, I can see several distinct features, which are very important to note for future policy making against similar disasters in Bangladesh and also around the World.
First, the cyclone warning system did reach to the millions of people on time except some poor fishers who usually are without communication links once they leave the coast for coastal fishing trips. Each of these trips usually lasts between 7 and 15 days. Consequently some of these fishers did not get the warnings on time to come to the coasts. South Asian Met Offices across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were watching the movement of the cyclone ever since it was in the Indian Ocean but it was difficult to predict it’s landfall at that time. If you look at the picture below, which tracks the path of the Cyclone, you can see for yourself that the prediction was not that easy. Many had thought that it would go to India and hit Orissa. Emergency workers in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal were also preparing for the landfall in their provinces. They were lucky, the storm changed its course and moved northeast and eventually hit Bangladesh.
The eye of the storm was bigger than the whole of Bangladesh and so you can easily imagine the strength of the cyclone and it devastating consequences on the poor people in the coasts of Bangladesh.
The coastal belts of Bangladesh was supposed to be dotted with shelters built since the 1970s but unfortunately on November 15 it was discovered that out of 30 million or so population at risk during this cyclone, we had only space for 15 million people in the shelters. This had put the government in trouble and they were waiting for the worst.
After the cyclone, the whole country was out of electricity for more than 24 hours and yet there was real calm from all the people. In Dhaka, where people are used to electricity and have a greater dependence on it, people did not scream at all! All our prayers were for the people in the southern coasts.
The relief operations began very quickly but it was and always is difficult to reach the remote localities within a short time. All of us were ready to hear the worst but it was not. People lost family members, lost crops, lost houses, lost animals, lost properties, and so on. Yet, there was not a single instance of people dying due to dearth of food. This, to me, tells a different story that we should begin to understand.
Take for example, in the Dublar Char, a fisher community who was exposed to the coastal surge and had no shelter home, people lost many of their relatives. Houses were flattened, treetops were twisted and help arrived nearly two days after the cyclone but no one died. It shows the other strength of our community and our nature. People helped each other with whatever they had after the cyclone. Nature provided the basic food to many. The dependence on nature of this people benefited them and they survived through extraction of fish and other resources from the environment. This is an example of the power of nature to heal us in our needs and its ability to survive through the worst cyclone. Interestingly, however, the same environment cannot survive when we torture it through pollution. It shows that “human power” is more dangerous and we should learn to restrain ourselves through rules and regulation.
There were 400 or so tigers and 60000 or more deer in the mangrove forests in the coast. The forest took the heat and protected people living north of the forest. Yet, very few of the deer or tiger population died due to cyclones. Contrary to this, the domesticated animals died in large numbers. Ever wonder why the latter group of animals could not protect them? I believe that this is where we should also think and learn to respect the “natural instinct” of animals. This means that we need to put more effort to protect our domesticated animals too. Shelter alone will not be enough.
Finally, many countries came forward to help Bangladesh. Some of them sent armed forces; some sent medicine, some sent food and so on. In this list of donors, Saudi Arabia paid for nearly 50% of the total aid received by Bangladesh. You can easily understand that friendship based on religious links is at work too. The country shall, however, remain grateful to all the countries that helped Bangladesh deal with these calamities.