Storm kills nine in several districts of Bangladesh

The Nor’wester that swept across several districts in Bangladesh on Tuesday has claimed nine lives.

The storm also damaged crops, houses and disrupted power supply. Many trees and electricity polls were also uprooted.

A mother and a child in Habiganj’s Baniachang and a man in Nabiganj died after a tree fell on their house in the storm on Tuesday night.

The deceased have been identified as Nurjahan Begum, 22, Robin Mia, 4, and Ramzan Ali alias Lal Mia, 40.

Baniachang Police Station OC Nirmalendu Chakrabarty said a tree fell on the tin-shed house, killing mother and child on the spot.

Lal Mia from Nabiganj was pronounced dead after he was rushed to Upazila Health Complex, said Nabiganj Police’s OC Liakat Ali.

Earlier, in Chirirbandar Upazila of Dinajpur, a child had died when walls of a house collapsed.

The powerful storm also damaged and disrupted electricity supply across the Upazila.

Chirirbandar Union Chairman Shah Motiur Rahman said the walls of a house collapsed in the storm killing a two-and-a-half year old child named Al Sayeed.

The storm also damaged paddy and cornfields and uprooted hundreds of trees, he said.

The storm that lasted for about 20-minute swept over Dinajpur Sadar including Chirirbandar, Saral, Biral Upazila disconnecting electricity supply across the areas.

Power Development Board Engineer Shafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com that the whole district was without electricity.

However, they hoped to restore power by Wednesday evening.

In separate incidents in Jamalpur’s Bakshiganj and Dewanganj Upazilas one person died and at least fifty others were injured after the walls of the houses collapsed.

Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner Md Shahabuddin Khan said the heavy storm on Tuesday night damaged at least 500 houses in the Upazila.

The deceased ‘Nijhum’, 18, was inside the house when the walls collapsed.

Bakshiganj UNO Nargis Parvin said, “The storm damaged over three hundred houses and injured at least 40 people in the Upazila.”

Meanwhile, in Dewanganj about two hundred houses including large numbers of trees and crops were damaged and at least 10 people were injured due to the storm, said Dewanganj UNO Md Saidul Islam.

After inspection, the DC Shahabuddin Khan told reporters that a sum of Taka 200,000, fifteen metric ton rice and fifteen bundles of tin had been distributed among the victims.

A schoolboy at Kishoreganj’s Sadar Upazila died when a tree fell on a house. His mother and brother were injured in the incident.

Deceased ‘Babul’, 5, was a grade three student of Syed Nazrul Islam Government Primary School.

Kishoreganj Model Police Station OC Mir Mosharraf Hossain said his mother Gulesa Begum, 45, and brother ‘Shafik’, 6, were injured in the accident.

In Gaibandha, 60-year-old Nawab Ali Mandal of Sadullapur Upazila’s Ganganarayanpur village died after a tree fell on him.

Many trees were uprooted and over 1,000 mud houses collapsed in Gaibandha district.

Power supply to the district snapped around 10pm when a tree fell on the power line.

No local newspaper in the district was published on Wednesday.

Gaibandha Power Division’s Executive Engineer Julkernain Shafi said it was uncertain when the power connection would be restored.

Sixty-year-old farmer Haider Ali of Nalitabarhi in Sherpur died when a tree fell on a house.

Another child died at Shribardi Upazila. She was identified as ‘Kajli’, 9.

The power connection to several areas in the district remained snapped since 1am Wednesday.