Mora Impact: Port city sees heavy rain, waterlogging

Though the city dwellers escaped a possible onslaught of cyclone Mora, the port city experienced severe waterlogging hours after the tropical storm made the landfall.

Most of the areas in the city went under knee-deep to waist-deep water due to overnight incessant rain from midnight to yesterday morning.

Meteorologists recorded 225.2mm rainfall in 24 hours as of 9:00am yesterday, said Farzana Nasrin, duty assistant of Patenga Met office.

City areas like Sholoshahar, Gate No 2, Chawkbazar, Bakalia, Muradpur, Bahaddarhat, Sholoshahar Gate No 2, Wireless, Kapasgola, Badurtola, Agrabad Access Road, Agrabad CDA Residential Area, Prabartak Intersection, Halishshar and Reazuddin Bazar were inundated due to heavy shower.

Filthy and stinky water overflowed from sewerage lines and spread to nearby roads, houses and business establishments, causing huge sufferings to people.

The rain stopped by 7:00am, but areas like Pashchim Sholoshahar, Bahaddarhat, Agrabad Access Road, Agrabad CDA Residential Area, Shyamoli Residential Area, Chawkbazar Kitchen Market and Halishahar remained waterlogged until noon.

“Water entered my house around 3:00am and caught us off guard,”said Nur Jahan Begum, a resident of Kapasgola area.

The five-member family had to take shelter on the corridor of a nearby market till 6:00am, she added.

“When we returned to our tin-shed house, we found that most of our valuables got soaked and damaged,” she said.

Masum Hossain, owner of Bismillah Rexine of Reazuddin Bazar, said he had found the goods of his shop floating as he entered his shop around 8:00am.

Most of the foam-rexine had been damaged in the water, he added.

Belayet Hossain Belal, vice-president of Golam Rasul Market, claimed that goods worth about Tk 50 lakh got damaged as water entered many shops.

Seeing heavy rainfall, Md Jamal, a poultry shop owner, returned to his shop at Chawkbazar kitchen market around 3:00am.

“Many of the chickens were floating in the water. I returned in time to save those,” he added.

“I had to go to my workplace at Court Building around 11:00am yesterday, sometimes by walking through waist-deep water,” said advocate Apurba Lal, who lives in Chawkbazar.

The master's examination of communication and journalism department at Chittagong University began at 11:30am instead of scheduled 10:00am as many students and teachers could not reach the campus in time due to waterlogging in different areas, said Abul Kalam Azad, chairman of the department.

Chittagong City Corporation Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin told reporters at Nagar Bhaban that they were trying to mitigate the waterlogging problem.

“Reasons behind the waterlogging have been identified and we are working to check those,” he said.

He expressed hope that many of the city areas would get rid of waterlogging by next year.