The authorities are assessing the loss after cyclonic storm Sitrang swept over Faridpur district, damaging agriculture, disrupting road communication and suspending factory operations due to power cuts since Monday.
The strong winds and incessant rains have damaged a vast area of land of ripened Aman paddy, onion, winter vegetables, banana and papaya plantations. Farmers fear that the onions and vegetables will rot in a day or two due to the stagnant water.
According to local sources, farmers cultivating Aman paddy have suffered the most damage due to the storm. This season, Aman saplings were planted on about 65,000 hectares of land in nine upazilas.
The storm has also ravaged many houses and uprooted hundreds of trees in various upazilas, including the district headquarters. Due to the fallen trees, traffic movements on the Dhaka-Faridpur-Barisal and Dhaka-Faridpur-Khulna highways remained suspended for about 10 hours. Besides, power supply was snapped in many areas.
On Monday night, a giant billboard collapsed on two buses as a result of strong winds in Bhanga Chaurasta area. There were no passengers on the buses at the time, police have said.
Azizul Sheikh, 35, a farmer in Saltha Upazila, said that he had lost everything due to the storm. Strong winds sweeping over the paddy fields had damaged his crop.
In Alfadanga and Charbhadrashan upazilas, more than a dozen houses were damaged by uprooted trees. However, there were no casualties.
Faridpur Water Development Board Executive Engineer Partha Pratim Saha said there was no damage to the Padma River protection embankment during the cyclonic storm.
Ziaul Haque, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension, said that the extent of damage in the district was yet to be known. “Work is underway to assess the loss suffered by farmers and crops affected.”
Power connection severed at 144 points
Abul Hasan, general manager of Faridpur Rural Electricity Board (REB), said that after Monday afternoon, about 100 poles of electricity transmission and distribution lines were broken in different parts of the district due to the cyclone.
He said RB staff were working to repair the connections at 144 points.
Bhanga residents Haji Saifullah Shamim and Sohag Matubbar said there had been a severe disruption in power supply in Bhanga since Monday morning. The outage began in the afternoon.
On the other hand, people from various upazilas, including Boalmari and Alfadanga, said there was no electricity from Sunday till Tuesday afternoon. The power outage disrupted operations in factories, including jute mills.
Mozammel Haque, executive engineer of West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited in Faridpur, said transmission lines had been damaged in various places due to the storm. In some places, transmitters also had problems. Due to these reasons, the electricity supply was suspended in some areas. However, the situation started to improve on Tuesday afternoon.