Natural Disaster: Cyclone Fani Embraced Bangladesh
Cyclone Fani, one of the strongest storms battered the Indian subcontinent in decades and smashed Bangladesh, and the country had been conducting mass evacuations all Friday. The monster weather system made landfall at the holy city of Puri on Friday morning, with winds gusting at up to 200km per hour.
The authorities of Bangladesh including Army, Navy, Coastguard, Fire Service and volunteers from different social and non-government organizations took massive preparation to executive rescue operations in anticipation of the cyclone. The authorities moved over 1.2 million people to nearly 4,000 storm shelters in the coastal districts to avoid casualties imperiled by cyclone Fani. Leaves of all government employees had been canceled due to the emergency response.
Approaching Community Empowerment Project (ACEP) volunteers of ADRA Bangladesh and WDMCs were directly engaged with the evacuation process in Dacope Upazila of Khulna district which is located in the southern part of Bangladesh. ADRA Bangladesh volunteer team was constantly communicating with the School Management Committee aiming to prepare a safe shelter for the vulnerable people. ADRA volunteers were frequently announcing through hand mike in order to raise awareness among the vulnerable community. ADRA emergency volunteers had identified 9 risky points in Tildanga union by communicating and consulting with CPP team.
In Dacope Upazila under Khulna district, there were 57 Cyclone Shelters (including primary school) had opened to protect vulnerable people from Cyclone Fani. Upazila Parishad of Dacope distributed dry foods (Chira, Muri, and Gur) to the people who took shelter in Cyclone shelter.
Under the influence of the very severe cyclonic storm Fani and the new moon phase, the low-lying areas of the coastal districts along with their offshore islands and chars were inundated by a storm surge 4-5 feet height above the normal astronomical tide which caused damage the households in the affected areas.
ADRA team is on the ground to assist the afflicted community affected by the ferocious cyclone.
