Staff Reporter :
At least nine persons, including two children, were killed and 200 others received injuries in the Nor’wester that swept across Rangpur, Gaibandha, Habiganj, Jamalpur, Kishoreganj and Dinajpur districts on Tuesday night. Hundreds of tin-shed and semi-pucca houses were damaged and thousands of trees were uprooted. The paddy fields and hatcheries were also damaged. In Rangpur, two persons, including a child, died and more than 100 were injured in the storm on Tuesday night. The injured were admitted to local health complex.
Officials said, about 15000 families have been passing their days under open sky. About 50,000 trees have been uprooted and paddy on 10000 hectares of land damaged. In Habiganj, three persons, including a mother and a child, were killed when Nor’wester lashed out over Baniachang upazila on Tuesday night. Besides, another man died in Nabiganj after a tree fell on their house during the storm.
The deceased were identified as Nurjahan Begum, 22, Robin Mia, 4, and Ramzan Ali alias Lal Mia, 40. Baniachang Police Station OC Nirmalendu Chakrabarty said that a tree fell on the tin-shed house, killing mother and child on the spot.
A man identified as Lalmia from Nabiganj was pronounced dead after he was rushed to Upazila Health Complex, said Nabiganj Police’s OC Liakat Ali. In Gaibandha, one person was killed and several others were injured on Tuesday night. The dead was identified as Nabab Ali Mondal, 60, from Ganganaraynour village under Sadullapur upazila.
The storm also caused severe losses in Gaibandha Sadar, Sundarganj, Sadullahpur, Gobindaganj, Palshbari, Saghata and Fulchhari areas. The electricity connection of the areas was disrupted at the time.
In Chirirbandar Upazila of Dinajpur, a child died when walls of a house collapsed in the storm. The storm also caused damage and disrupted electricity supply across the Upazila.
Chirirbandar Union Chairman Shah Motiur Rahman said that the walls of a house collapsed in the storm killing a two-and-a-half year old child named Al Sayeed. The storm damaged cropfields and uprooted hundreds of trees, he said. The storm that lasted for about 20-minute swept Dinajpur Sadar including Chirirbandar, Saral and Biral Upazilas disconnecting electricity supply across the areas. Power Development Board Engineer Shafiqul Islam said, the whole district was without electricity. In separate incidents in Jamalpur’s Bakshiganj and Dewanganj Upazilas, one person died and at least fifty were injured after the walls of the houses collapsed.
Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner Md Shahabuddin Khan said the heavy storm on Tuesday night damaged at least 500 houses in the Upazila. The deceased ‘Nijhum’, 18, was inside the house at that time.
Bakshiganj UNO Nargis Parvin said, “The storm damaged over three hundred houses and injured at least 40 people in the Upazila.”
Meanwhile, in Dewanganj about two hundred houses including large numbers of trees and crops were damaged and at least 10 people were injured due to the storm, said Dewanganj UNO Md Saidul Islam.
After inspection, the DC Shahabuddin Khan told reporters that a sum of Taka 200,000 in cash, fifteen metric tonnes rice and fifteen bundles of tin had seen distributed among the victims.
