BLACKOUT<br>Disaster averted
Amzad, 18, was crying in pain, standing in front of the emergency unit of National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation.
He broke his left hand in a bus accident but could not get it operated on as the hospital's operation theatre was closed following the power failure yesterday.
Jharna, 30, writhed in pain too. She needed an immediate diagnosis but the ultrasonography machines at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital had no power.
These are only a few instances of sufferings that people at city hospitals went through amid the nationwide outage since 11:30am.
As the blackout continued long after sundown, hospital authorities became worried about power supply to the ICU, CCU and emergency wards, which were running with generators.
The hospitals, however, saw off the outage apparently without a major disaster as electricity was restored there by 10:00pm.
Earlier, almost all public hospitals had to do without diagnostic equipment throughout the 10-hour blackout. Many patients with head injuries were seen queuing up in front of radiology and imaging department at Dhaka Medical College Hospital for CT scans late in the afternoon. Some of them had been waiting there for up to three hours.
Water supply was also disrupted in major city hospitals. Patients' attendants were seen standing in a line for water at many hospitals.
At DMCH, dialysis could not be administered due to water crisis. Besides, food for over 3,000 patients there could not be prepared in time.
Candles were lit but as the supplies ran out, many were seen using torches in mobile phones. Patients at different wards suffered as the electric fans could not be turned on.
Rehana Begum, sister of a patient at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), said pathological tests of her brother could not be done due to the blackout.
Bidhan Chandra Sengupta, in-charge, Clinical Pathology, CMCH, said they could not do any test after 2:00pm with samples piling up.
CMCH Director Brig Gen Khondakar Shahidul Ghani said power was supplied to the key wards and the ICU, CCU and the operation theatres by generators.
Over 1,500 patients at the Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) underwent similar ordeals.
RMCH Director Brig Gen Nasir Uddin said three generators of the hospital ran on alternate hours, as the machines had to be shut down every hour for refuelling and cooling.
"We are concerned that the machines may go out of order due to increased load," he said.
In Barisal, emergency operations at hospitals were done using candle light, informed Dr Kamrul Hasan Selim, director of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital.
People in the capital also suffered immensely. Many were seen rushing to nearby shops to get bottled water. But increased demand soon left the shops out of water too.
"I did not know what to feed my children as my taps ran dry. I had to rush to a shop," said Jhumur, 32, a housewife in a neighbourhood in the capital.
Businesses started shutting down as their generators overheated. Ananta Group, a major garment manufacturing company in the capital, had to switch on its massive generators to keep eight of its units running, costing the company an additional Tk 5-6 lakh.
Employees of different factories ran from one petrol station to another looking for diesel.
Mohammad Zafor, manager of Shahjahan Enterprises Ltd, the gas station near the capital's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, said he had to run the station using a generator the whole day.
"But if we run a generator for an hour, we need to keep it shut for half an hour to allow it to cool down. So we lost some customers but what is more worrying is running the station with diesel-run generators, which would increase our cost," he said.
Swapan Kanti Chakraborty, chief engineer of Chattagram Bidyut Kendro, said all the five power production centres of Chittagong were stopped as soon as the national grid failed.
Production in four units of Kaptai Hydro Electric Centre resumed at around 4.30pm, he said, adding that generation in the rest of the centres would also resume soon.
Mahbubul Alam, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said production in the industries was hampered due to the power failure.
Both print and electronic media outlets suffered tremendously as reporters found it difficult to send news items to head offices. Publication of local newspapers was also hampered.
The TV stations faced crisis of gas and fuel. They deployed their teams at different points of the capital, fearing deterioration of law and order and rise in crimes.
Although television stations ran programmes and news, the countrymen could not watch them. Even so, all the programmes and news bulletins ran on schedule for viewers outside the country.
Major airports, including the Shahjalal International Airport, faced no problem as they have their own power-supply systems. However, authorities shut down many air conditioners and less important establishments to save power.
Jail authorities put all the 68 prisons on high alert as those remained in dark for hours without any generator service.
“We are using lanterns and torches at all the jails,” Inspector General (Prisons) Brig Gen Iftekhar Uddin told The Daily Star.
Security was beefed up all over the country with deployment of law enforcers at the key-point installations and other government and private establishments.
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