At least nine people were killed by tropical storm "Mahasen." Due to prolonged heavy rainfall in Patuakhali, Barguna, Bhola, and Chittagong among other areas, thousands of people took shelter at different shelters and safe homes, uprooted trees and wreckage of houses can be found in all affected areas. Low-lying areas of Patuakhali and Barguna were stuck by heavy rainfall due to impact of Mahasen and many areas have been submerged. Communication was significantly disrupted, with an interruption in mobile services and complete electrical failure, causing widespread panic. Due to excessive damage to electricity pillars and dislocated transmitters, most of areas in the 8 coastal districts remained in the dark for the days following the storm. A Pontoon dislocated from the riverbank, which initially denied Patuakhali and Barguna regular communication. Different sources confirmed at least 1m people living in the coastal belt have been evacuated.
Record numbers of people have been sheltered along the coast. Around 250,000 people have been sheltered in many places including cyclone shelters (designated school buildings), government offices, UP buildings, offices of different NGOs. This time, schools, NGO offices, govt. offices were mainly used as safe shelter for women and children. The success of all of these programmes has come as a result of the steps taken before the onslaught of the storm. The massive programs taken to raise awareness in the community, the thousands of volunteers active along the coast, continuous services from community radio and the use of mass media.
As most of the school buildings in the area were used as shelters, coming back to normalcy may take some time. In many areas, the approach roads to the schools were inundated, one-storeyed buildings were mainly used for shelter of domestic animals and this led to the buildings being unusable for weeks.
However, the overall have shown the readiness of the country in dealing with natural disasters, particularly cyclones. As a result, the damage was not as bad as was expected. This has even been reflected in the international media. And, the final result was that "Mahasen" fizzled out, and helped Bangladesh's across the globe!
Over the last few days, we have seen things return to normal with people returning to their homes. However, this process was not easy on the ground. Despite all the preparations there were still many gaps found, and many issues raised. They include a lack of coordination among public entities and NGOs, unavailability of shelters, a lack of awareness raising materials and the capacity of our volunteers. This brought into question our actual disaster preparedness and the modernisation of the Cyclone Preparedness Program (CPP) considered crucial for cyclone emergency management.
During cyclonic storms, taking shelter at safe, designated buildings is the ultimate preparedness measure. In the 13 coastal districts of the country, 3770 shelters have been constructed over the years (DDM: April, 2013) that could provide a safe haven for 10 million people. Unfortunately, a significant numbers of shelters are not usable due to a lack of proper maintenance. In last 4 years, around 970 shelters have been built although the original plan was for 5,000 additional shelters. As a result of this, in every shelter along the coast, around 2,000 people were accommodated at each during disasters even though capacity is 200, at most. This has given the nation a clear understanding that the number of shelters is not sufficient in comparison to the population living in the endangered zone of the country.
During natural disasters, there is a common complaint against coastal people that they refuse to leave their belongings, and domestic animals, behind. This was also true of the latest disaster. It has been empirically shown that robbery rises during times of disaster; so male family members often choose to stay behind in their homes. This leads to more casualties. The best way to minimise this effect would be to increase the numbers and size of "killas"(high raised and mud built area for keeping the animals in shelter) that adjoin cyclone shelters.
Lack of capacity of the CPP volunteers and community based organizations, insufficiency of awareness raising programs and search and rescue materials at the community and institutions level come on board as a big concern. For last few years, Disaster Risk Reduction Programs have been taking place along the coast. Megaphones, first aid kits and search and rescue materials have been provided to the Upazilla and Union Disaster Management Committee, schools and some community level organizations. These materials were very useful although their supply still turned out to be insufficient with regard to the needs of the population during, and following, Mahasen. When disasters actually happen, CPP volunteers and the Disaster Management Committee in the districts, upazilas and unions become active, but the committees even do not meet on a regular basis, and most are no longer properly certified. As a result, there is a lack of overall coordination during disasters.
Again, the traditional signaling system was used despite the development of newer, more effective systems. This meant that many, especially development professionals, were not familiar with the signals. In addition, most people do not know what signal four even means. The traditional signaling system (comprised of 10 signals) was developed by the British and we are still using it. What we need is a people oriented signaling system, and as was mentioned earlier, one has been developed. The reason it is not still used is because enough initiatives were not taken to familiarise the people to the new system.
In the past 20 years, a total of 135 million people have been affected by different disasters, out of which 16,513 lost their lives. The total amount of resulting economic damage was USD11.7m (EM-DAT). In 1970, a severe cyclone took a toll of 0.3m, while the toll was 0.14m in 1991. In 2007, "Sidr" hit the coastal belt of the country affecting all the 32 coastal districts and around 4000 people died, that number dropped to 300 by the time "Aila" rolled around in 2009. Although cyclone "Mahasen" damaged a lot of crops, the number of casualties was a lot lower than previous disasters. This shows that total damage from natural disasters in Bangladesh has significantly decreased over the years.
All this happened through initiatives by the state and NGOs. Policy formulation to ground level implementation, along with a rise in overall awareness among communities, the positive role of media and community based organizations were all factors in improving our preparedness and management. Hopefully we can continue to harness these initiatives and continue improving our record.