Cyclone Yaas has breached embankments and caused flooding along the coast. It has made landfall in Indian coast of Odisha and West Bengal with full destructive force. In our view Bangladesh needs to gear up rescue and rehabilitation activities to help people overcome losses and resume normal life. Heavy rains are expected to cause more flood during the full moon and it has already caused breach to embankments at many places.
The cyclone has hit Sundarbans and vast area of Khulna and Barguna and has already caused floods in 27 coastal Upazilas from Patuakhali to Naokhali and Chattogram. Many people have left homes for safety at cyclone shelters. The local administration should mobilize all resources and medical teams to meet any eventuality. Reports said the cyclone has caused havoc throughout yesterday in the Indian coasts between Odisha and West Bengal.
Media report said tidal water has already flooded houses, crops and other structures in at least 200 villages in Khulna region. But the visibility of local administration in those affected areas is not clearly spotted as media report said. We can’t accept the laxity of the administration to provide food and shelter to displaced people and take protective measures in crowded cyclone shelter amid the surging pandemic. We are afraid people may lose livestock and crops.
We have bitter experiences from the devastation of cyclone Sidr and Aila in 2007 and 2009 when the country suffered heavy loss of life and property. Millions of people are now jobless from shutdown and their livelihood may suffer yet another blow unless we make enough arrangement to save affected people.
Cyclone forms in the Bay of Bengal in two seasons each year. Some of them turn very devastating. People are still scared of the devastations of past cyclones. The last cyclone to hit Bangladesh and West Bengal coasts was Amphan in 2020. Aila alone had affected 11 million people, killed 4190, washed away or destroyed hundreds of homes and structure and killed 2.2 million livestock. It had also destroyed crops over millions acres of land.
