Cyclone! Crumbling walls and a fight to save her family
28 October 2024Sahanur withstands a test of patience and resilience to save her family, cattle and house from the horrifying impacts of a cyclonic storm.
“I sent my children to the neighbour’s elevated house, and I stayed back. People were evacuating this area, but I had to be here for my goats and chicken.”
Sahanur
Survival on an island
Sahanur lives with her husband and 2 children on the island of Bhola. Located at the heart of the Bay of Bengal, Bhola and surrounding coastal areas are among some the most climate vulnerable regions in the world.
Only 2 metres above sea-level, Sahanur’s neighbourhood is endowed with lakes and ponds. Flooding and water-logging are common and expected. However, at the end of May this year, cyclonic storm Remal caught locals off guard.
“I was so scared of getting out of my bed in the dark with all those dangerous insects and snakes in the water down below. When friends and family called, I cried.”
Sahanur
Cyclone Remal -an unexpected disaster
“We heard that the water level would rise and there would be flooding. But we had no clue it would be this severe,” recalls Sahanur. “We didn’t expect the water to gush through our doors. We didn’t know we would face such torment,” she said.
Sahanur’s house was 1 of the many damaged by the cyclone. She remembers sitting afraid in her waterlogged house as the roof and walls of her kitchen fell down. “I sent my children to the neighbour’s elevated house, and I stayed back. People were evacuating this area, but I had to be here for my goats and chicken,” Sahanur explained. She watched the clay floor wash away, as snakes and viscous insects surrounded her. “I was so scared of getting out of my bed in the dark, with all those dangerous insects and snakes in the water down below. When friends and family called, I cried.”
Mending the broken pieces
“I thought maybe the water wouldn’t rise any further but soon our whole house was flooded. All our furniture was submerged, they are too heavy to pick up. All my clothes were wet. Our entire clay floor eroded. We are exhausted by the work that needed to be done for the house. We had to lay down fresh clay all over the house,” says Sahanur.
Once the storm subsided, and water levels began to fall, Sahanur and her husband began rebuilding their kitchen. They bought fresh soil to reconstruct the entire foundation of their house and built a new fence to prevent water from entering the house in case of future emergencies. They hired construction workers to repair their kitchen.
Stop the Stigma project
Sahanur’s family was 1 of those which the Stop the Stigma project had assisted during the emergency cyclone situation. Amidst the rampant connectivity issues, project field facilitators had found it difficult to transfer emergency funds to their family. Finally, they travelled over waterlogged areas to reach the damaged house and provide hand-cash which the family would use for emergency repairs.
A few months after the cyclone, a terrifying flood struck the climate vulnerable country of Bangladesh. Read more about Plan International Bangladesh’s emergency response during the flood:
Categories: Emergencies
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