Storm lashes four districts
Nor'westers, short-lived storms locally known as Kalbaishakhi, left 14 people, including four of a family, dead and 85 others injured late Sunday night in four districts.
Homes, crops, shops and trees were destroyed and vast areas in several districts were left without power.
Wind gusts of one of the storms were reportedly so powerful that they derailed nine carriages of a train, snapping rail communication between Dhaka and western Bangladesh.
Eight deaths were reported in Netrakona alone, four in Sunamganj and one each in Sylhet and Rajbari, report our correspondents.
In Netrakona, Afroza Begum, 30, her three sons Parvez, 9, Rony, 4, and Rana, 2, were killed in Bishompur when the storm caused their house to collapse.
Mamun, 17, of Noynagar in Kalmakanda upazila, Habibur Rahman, 85, of Borni in Netrakona Sadar, Soma, 9, of Haripur in Mohonganj upazila and Emdad, 14, of Gadarkanda in Barhatta upazila were killed in separate nor'westers. They died when their homes collapsed on them.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Al-Mamun of Netrakona said the nor'westers lasted up to 45 minutes from 10:45pm and damaged over 2,000 homes, 1,000 hectares of boro crops, uprooted hundreds of trees and electric poles, disrupting electricity supply to 10 upazilas until 5:00pm yesterday.
At least 30 people were injured and many of them were admitted to Netrakona Sadar Hospital and local healthcare centres.
In Sunamganj, Shamsul Haque, 65, a security guard at a brick kiln in Mahadirpur, Bithi Akhtar, 10, and Kachu Mia, 40, Golla Rajapur of Dharmapasha, and Dud Mia, 65, of Jagannathpur in Madhyanagar were killed when their homes caved in on them, said Harun-Or-Rashid, superintendent of police of Sunamganj.
Forty others were injured as the storms swept over parts of the district between 11:30pm Sunday and 1:00am yesterday, flattening around 5,000 houses and uprooting more than 1,000 trees and electric poles.
In Sylhet, a four-minute storm with wind speed of 82kmph swept through the district at 12:48am yesterday.
UNO Tarek Mohammad Zakaria of Kanaighat upazila said Altafunnesa, an elderly woman, was killed at Gorakpur and 15 others were injured during the storm. Altafunnesa died when the roof of her house fell on her.
Chief Engineer (Sylhet circle) Rezaul Kabir of Power Development Board said power supply to about 90 percent of the district had been suspended since the storm struck.
Meanwhile, Farid Sheikh, 30, a fisherman, was killed during a nor'wester. He was struck by lightning on the Padma in Goalanda of Rajbari yesterday morning.
Two nor'westers, on Sunday night and yesterday morning, halted ferry services in Goalanda and launch services between Paturia and Daulatdia twice.
Violent winds in Sirajganj reportedly derailed nine out of 12 carriages of Drutojan Express, which runs between Dhaka and Dinajpur, at the west end of Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge around 11:30pm on Sunday.
The derailment snapped rail communications between Dhaka and the northwestern and southwestern districts for 18 hours.
According to the Met office in Dhaka, there is a possibility of more nor'westers in Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions until evening today.
Different parts of the country may experience rain and thunderstorms today, the Met office added.
Comments