COX’S BAZAR — Residents of Cox’s Bazar district and the coastal areas of southern Chattogram on Wednesday marked the 35th anniversary of the 1991 cyclone and tidal surge that devastated the region and killed several hundred thousand people.
The cyclone struck on April 29, 1991, flattening thousands of homes, killing livestock and claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The memory of that disaster and the loss of loved ones has not faded from the minds of coastal residents.
On Wednesday, April 29, residents of Cox’s Bazar and southern Chattogram remembered the victims through prayer gatherings at mosques, Quran recitations and other commemorative programs.
The cyclone struck the Cox’s Bazar and Chattogram regions in the middle of the night. Wind speeds topped 250 kilometers per hour and the storm pushed waves about 20 feet high onto the coast, residents and survivors said. Men, women and children, along with countless livestock, perished in the disaster. Human and animal bodies were carried away together by the tidal surge. Coastal embankments, shrimp farms and homes were reduced to rubble.
Three decades on, the memory of the devastation has not faded from the coastal communities of Cox’s Bazar and southern Chattogram. Each year on this date, the cries of those who lost loved ones still weigh heavily on the area.
Across the affected coastline — including Banshkhali, Anwara, Patenga, Sandwip, Sitakunda, Mirsharai and Hatiya in Chattogram, and the Cox’s Bazar district areas of Sadar, Chakaria, Maheshkhali, Pekua, Kutubdia and Ramu — durable embankments have still not been built. Most embankments collapsed during the 1991 storm, and because they were not properly reconstructed at the local level, the coast remains unprotected. Residents said that any combination of cyclone and tidal surge now spreads fear across the area.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report