Power outage in Dinajpur Sadar after 15-minute storm

A storm swept Dinajpur Sadar upazila and municipality area in the early hours of today leaving a trail of devastation, damaging hundreds of houses and uprooting trees.

Power supply in the area has remained cut as transmission lines were snapped in the storm that lashed the area around 1:10am.

The power supply could not be restored still noon, reports our Dinajpur correspondent.

All emergency services including treatment at hospitals and clinics in the town is being hampered badly because of the outage.

According to the Met office in Dinajpur, the 15-minute storm lashed Dinajpur Sadar upazila and its surrounding areas around 1:10am. The storm, which accompanied by light rain and hails, destroyed or damaged hundreds of tin-shed houses and uprooted trees.

The actual number of damaged houses could not be ascertained.

But this correspondent found at least 50 houses in Rajbari, Gunjabari and areas surrounding the Dinajpur Medical College damaged in the storm.

He also found snapped electric wires on the road at different places today.

While visiting the 500-Bed M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital in Dinajpur, the correspondent found the entire hospital plunged in the dark. All services of the hospital remained suspended as the hospital does not have a power generator.

Situation at Dinajpur 250 Bed General Hospital was the same.

However, several private clinics have kept their services operational with power generators.

On the other hand, the number of battery-run easy bike was thin as the power outage affected recharging.

Mosaddek Kabir, the superintendent engineer of Power Development Board in Dinajpur, said the storm damaged power supply system extensively at different places. They are trying to restore the services as early as possible, but it cannot be said how long it will take to restore power in the entire area, he said.