Seventy five-year-old Taslima Khatun is a bereaved mother and grandmother at the same time as she lost her daughter and granddaughter in the Sunday’s harsh thunderstorm ended leaving life in Bara and Parsa in agony and grief.
Bhaluhi, Purainiya and Bharbali of Pheta rural municipality bore the brunt of the devastating storm on the evening of last Sunday. The survivors of the freak incident have now a heap of ordeals to recount and hope for reliable helping hands.
The incident devoured Taslima’s daughter Muskima, 40, and granddaughter Gulabasa, 20. But the bereaved grandma is desperately waiting for the humanitarian assistance. “Life must be lived until death takes you away,” she said, adding that she had so far got no support and relief from anywhere.
Nurjaha Khatun, 35, a mother of three, was found carrying her three-month-old baby and looking over debris of her home (flattened by the storm) in scorching heat. She does not find any word to console her five-year-old (second) son who has been continuously asking for since the incident. Her father-in-law Kamrul Ansari, 60; spouse Hadis Ansari, 40; and nine-year-old son are undergoing treatment at the Birgunj-based National Medical college. She has no idea where to go ask for relief and how to pursue it.
Several organizations are flocking Pheta with relief packages, but the real victims have been deprived of it. Relief in the aftermath of the storm is desperately needed here. “The survivors have neither roof nor anything to eat. Shortage of reliable source of drinking water and toilets have put them at risk of epidemic of various sorts of diseases,” said Jamiat Ulmae Nepal’s general secretary Mohammed Khalid Siddique.
Families who are rendered homeless by the storm have no means at hand to address the minimum basic needs. The survivors are in distress due to an absence of the distribution of relief materials through a one-door policy. Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) State 2 president Deependra Chauhan talking to RSS after his field visit to the affected sites said the ongoing relief distribution process is inappropriate. Political leaders flocking here, further worsening the situation.
Serious problem has been seen in the distribution of relief to and rehabilitation of the windstorm victims. "The leaders accompanied by crowds of people come to the village turn by turn, announce big relief packages and set up relief distribution camps but leave without providing the relief. It appears as though they are mocking at us," Lais Miyan of Purainiya, Pheta rural municipality-6 said.
The village is full of visitors coming to the village and announcing relief assistance but we have got no more than few packets of beaten rice in the name of relief, he added. Chief District Officer (CDO) of Bara district, Rajesh Poudel, said arrangements have been made for distributing the relief through Pheta rural municipality by preparing a list of the genuine storm-affected families as the relief distribution process became unorganized.
A strong storm on Sunday evening wreaked havoc at Pheta rural municipality, causing the most damage at ward numbers 1, 3 and 6.
Amiri Lal Prasad, the chairman of the Pheta rural municipality, said most people got killed due to falling bricks at houses not constructed as per the building code when the twister occurred and added that the new structures to be constructed would be built strictly keeping to the building code.
"I lost my mother, wife and two daughters when my house collapsed during the storm. I have lost everything. Some people have no shelter, others no family and still more people are without food and beddings," lamented Sahabuddin Ansari of Purainiya.
Ansari had constructed his house with the money he sent back home while working in foreign land for two years.
Thirty people have been killed and more than 700 have sustained injuries until Tuesday evening in Bara and Parsa districts due to the storm, the District Police Office Bara said.
