A severe nor'wester storm (Kalboishakhi) swept across Rangpur city and various upazilas of the district late Saturday night, uprooting hundreds of trees, severely damaging makeshift houses, and injuring more than fifty people.
According to the fire service and witnesses, the storm struck the city around 12:15am on Saturday night.
Due to snapped electric wires, several areas of the city lost power.
Trees were uprooted in various areas of Rangpur city, including Robertsganj and Alamnagar. As a result, several shops were destroyed.
A 32,000-volt power line was damaged when the storm snapped electrical cables.
On Sunday, around 11am, fire service personnel started removing the fallen trees.
Mamtaz Uddin, an employee of the Power Division, said that until the fire service removes the fallen trees, it will not be possible to restore the electricity poles and power lines.
Meanwhile, Alema Begum and Ashraful, two shopkeepers whose stores were destroyed, were seen weeping, saying that all their goods had been ruined, and they demanded government assistance.
Similarly, a large tree remained uprooted in front of the Rangpur Education Engineering Department building, and by 12pm, no initiative had been taken to remove it.
Across different parts of the city, over a hundred trees were uprooted and more than a hundred makeshift houses were devastated.
In other areas like Haragachh of Kaunia upazila, and various parts of Badarganj and Mithapukur upazilas in Rangpur, hundreds of trees were uprooted and makeshift houses were destroyed.
Rangpur Fire Service official Aftab Uddin said: "We are working to cut and remove the fallen trees to restore the disrupted power lines."
