Cyclone Amphan sweeps over Barishal, leaves trail of damage

Sweeping over Barishal, Cyclone Amphan has severely affected households in different upazilas of the district, and uprooted trees and electric poles which has led to a disruption of electricity supply in many areas. 

The cyclone has also damaged the embankments made by the Water Development Board (WDB) in at least seven places including Bakerganj, Uzirpur and Sadar upazila. 

Fortunately, there were no reports of casualties. 

The district and upzaila administrations are trying to figure out the damage caused by the cyclone. 

Sources at the district administration said that local people have been asked to check the damage and share the statistics with the administration. 

As of Thursday noon, some 24,480 houses were damaged in different upazilas of the district. Among them, 16,320 houses were partially damaged while 8,360 were completely destroyed. 

Sources from the WDB said that 480 meters of embankment in Shayestabad union, under Sadar upazila, was partially damaged. 

Besides, 760 meters of embankment in Raghunathpur, Padrishibir and Nolua of Bakerganj was affected. 

Sections of the embankment in the Satla-Baghda area of Uzirpur were also broken.

"We received information that embankments in five to six places have been broken, and we are already trying to fix some of them," said Zaved Iqbal, assistant engineer of WDB's Barishal Regional Chief Engineer's office. 

Md Abu Sayed, district fisheries officer said that 369 hatcheries and 883 ponds were flooded. 

The loss in the fisheries sector in the district is worth over Tk2.83 crore, he added. 

"We took precautionary measures to counter cyclone Amphan, so the damage is low," said SM Ajiur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner of Barishal.