34 years have already been passed. However, the memory is still quite sharp. It was a doomsday for millions of Bangladeshis living in the coastal area especially of Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong. More or less 140,000.00 lovely people of my motherland died instantly. Dreams of millions perished along with all their property with a single blow of a deadly cyclone on this day, 29 April in 1991. We, the Cox’s Bazarian lost many of our near and dear ones. After 34 years while I am writing this post, tears roll out through my cheeks. It is still quite difficult to control emotions.

In Cox’s Bazar city where we had been residing (almost in the middle of the city), at that time, there were only a few two storied buildings. The wind started getting intensified gradually by 8:20 PM. In BTV (the only TV channel of that time) Mrs. Asma Ahamed Masud was presenting 8 O’clock Bangla News. My father (to me, the most caring father in the world) was repeatedly asking us to finish dinner. We were about to start early dinner. Suddenly electricity went out of supply because of the gradual intensity of the wind. At that time there were no Instant Power Supply (IPS) facilities in the country, let alone in our house. My father was a bit upset as we didn’t finish dinner earlier as he advised. However, all our family members finished dinner at the quickest possible time with the help of candlelight and kerosene Hurricane.

Right after dinner, my father was asking us to go down to the ground floor. Because he had a fear of an earthquake in his mind during a severe cyclone or if the upper part of the building got damaged by the severity of the wind, the lower part of the building might be in a better position. Still there was no fear of an upsurge of water in our mind as there was no previous record of inundation of the very part of our residential area with flood water or up tide of the sea water.

My father, along with my mother, my siblings including me, were looking out at the sky through the open window of the ground floor balcony. It looked like a big red eyed sky was going to tell a deadly story of devastation to the world the next morning. The speed/intensity of the wind was extremely strong. I could clearly see the coconut trees over the house of Chairman Absar (in front of our residence) were bending to the ground. Branches of the trees were flying everywhere. At one point it was impossible to keep standing at balcony holding the iron bars of the window. All of us went inside the house. This continued until 10:30 to 11:00 pm.

All of a sudden, a quite good number of people gathered in front of our main gate and were about to break it as it was locked. There was a deadly wind, but it was not cold. It felt like a warmness coming from the burning fire or woven. I, somehow, with the advice of my father, managed to open the gate. With my utmost fear, dozens of my neighbours/relatives including female persons scrambled to our residence. Everyone was perplexed. Some of them were shivering because of sudden trauma. I still remember some of my neighbours were crying loudly, as already they lost their houses and property. While I was about to go out of the house to open the main gate to let them enter, I discovered water in the garage where my father’s car was parked. Trust me, within 2 to 3 minutes, the ground floor was already inundated by the upsurge of the sea water. I still can visualize that the floor of our house was at least two and half feet higher than the surface level of the road in front of our residential building. Then all of us along with neighbours went up to the 1st floor and stayed there until dawn. The wind started losing its intensity by 3 to 4 am.

Furthermore, I would like to recall two incidents. After 2:00 am as I can remember, I went out to see the condition of my Fofu’s house (Mrs. Amena Khatun, founder of Amena Khatun Girls’ High School in Cox’s Bazar) and that of my other two cousins. When I stepped on the main road to take a round to the back side of our residence, I discovered that the road was already inundated to the height of my waist. By the way, at that time I was almost a 6-foot-tall but thin boy of 16 years . A sudden muscular wind was about to fly me to the sky. With the help of one of my cousins who is presently the husband of my younger sister, that time I managed to stand on the ground, although half submerged in the water. After a while, when I reached the back corner of our residence, there was another severe wind, that time, I managed to survive holding a sewerage line of our residence holding as strongly as possible. The wind was so strong that it almost blew me as we could see in the cartoons. I discovered that the houses of my Fofu and cousin Advocate Jobayer were fully damaged. That day 1st time in my life I saw Jubayer bhai was wailing for his loss. At that time, he was a student without any income and his parents left him years before. Later my father build him another house.

Seeing my cousin’s house, I rushed to see the house of my Jetu (uncle), we used to call him Jetu Abba (Master Badiul Alam, a prominent figure of his time). I found the house was inundated by at least half meter water. My Jetu was sitting in a corner of a dining table with a grim face. He was just gazing at me with full of affection, his eyes were full of tears, but he didn’t tell me anything. It was as if a father found his son alive after a deadly devastation. I also didn’t tell him anything. His backside house was also damaged. Then I returned to my own house. All these houses were next to each other.

One of my cousins was married to Moheshkhali Upazial. She lost some of her close in-laws’ relatives. Some of her close relatives survived catching the upper part of a coconut tree which was next to their house. There were fishing boats hanging on the rooftopd after the recession of the sea water in some parts of her community. Readers may think that I might have exaggerated some parts. For them, every word of my story is true and the whole cycle of the cyclone period is still as fresh in my mind as if, it happened a day ago.

That time my deceased father M. Shamsul Islam was an active journalist. The most renowned one in the whole of Cox’s Bazar District. The next morning, at around 10/10:30 am, he went to see around as much as possible, managing a rickshaw. After returning home, I discovered my father in a completely broken mode. He was not talking to us. When I asked my father, breaking the silence, he pulled me by his side, saying that he saw many dead bodies including hundreds of cattle at Labony and Kolatoli Belt of Cox’s Bazar sea beach. He said to us that poor and coastal people lost everything. However, there was no electricity, no water supply, no telephone connection. Road communication from Cox’s Bazar to the rest of the country was disrupted. The weather was very humid. My skin was burning while I went out. Almost all the trees in my neighborhood were destroyed/uprooted fully. In our backyard there were many mango, jackfruit, betel-nut trees including 3 coconut trees along with some other small trees of different types of seasonal fruits. Except for two coconut and one Jackfruit tree, the rest were fully uprooted. People suffered a lot because of the lack of pure drinking water, electricity and food crisis. We also suffered a lot because of the cut of electricity and water.

Within a few days (I guess, two days after the cyclone) an American Naval Ship anchored close to Cox’s Bazar coast and started providing emergency support to the affected people. We used to see frequent movement of American Helicopters over us.

I had my SSC exam starting from 30 April. It was postponed. It took us quite a long time to restore electricity and other facilities. My father’s car was fully damaged as it went under the salty water because the garage was flooded by the sea water. Our water pump was damaged, and it took a while to repair and restore the water supply in our own residence. In my neighbourhood all the tube-wells were damaged. The water became saline. Since then, many parts of Cox’s Bazar are having problems with drinking water as the salinity has increased in the underground water.

A good part of the cyclone of 91 is that it helped to build resilience among my community people as well as the whole of the country. Today Bangladesh has become a role model for the rest of the world in combating natural disaster like severe cyclone and flood.

On this day, I pray to the Almighty for the salvation of the departed souls and keep continuing to provide patience to the ones who lost their near and dear ones. May Allah protect us from all natural calamities in the days to come.

A Facebook post of Mobasserul Islam who witnessed the cyclone of 91