Port city hit bad by cyclone Roanu

Along with damaging Naval Academy road and hundreds of makeshift shops in Patenga beach area, cyclone Roanu has inflicted massive damage on the Chittagong city protection embankment.

People living in the coastal areas of Patenga and South Halishahar are in fear whether it will be able to stand the high tide during the rainy season when the sea condition will be rough.

“Four to five major portions were damaged in Charpara to Khejurtola areas as powerful tides washed away the boulders,” said ward-40 councilor Jainal Abedin, adding, “We have informed Chittagong Development Authority to repair thrm.”

He said if the embankment could not stand the tidal surge, then around three lakh people would suffer.

Visiting the area, this correspondent saw several hundred feet long stretches of the embankment washed away in Khejurtola area.

“If the trees had not been cut down, it would not have happened. They were cut a few months ago for implementing the Outer Ring Road project” said Mohammed Sazzad, a local resident.

“We do not even know when it will be completed,” said Mohammed Delwar of Muslimabad area.

Some CDA officials were seen repairing the most damaged parts of the embankment by filling sand around 12:00 noon.

“The Naval Academy road is completely damaged,” said Saleh Ahmed Chowdhury, councilor of ward-41.

“The around four-kilometer naval road facilitates movement from airport. It's a famous tourist destination for its location along the estuary of Karnaphuli River and the Bay of Bengal,” he said, adding, “It's owned by Chittagong Port Authority. Our mayor has already informed them and they said they would start repairing soon.”

Around 500 families in Lal Diar Char C block in the area are living with flood water, he added.

  Around 75 shops have been destroyed by the tides in the naval area, informed locals.

“We thought the cyclone would hit after 2:00pm. The river swelled around 10:30am and gigantic tides started hitting the wall. At one point it came apart and parts of it hit the shops destroying everything inside,” said Md Jalal, owner of Hotel Obodan. One of the owners who lost everything.

In Patenga beach area around 300 shops were completely washed away, said Shamshul Alam, general secretary of Patenga Sea Beach Shop Owners Co-operative Association.

Chittagong city is protected by a 21.7km embankment from Patenga to Bhatiari of Sitakunda upazila, built between 1965 and 1970.

The embankment was massively damaged during the cyclones and water surges of 1970, 1985, 1988 and 1991. Between 1992 and 1996, Water Development Board rehabilitated the 14 feet wide embankment, which is 8.5 to 8.7 metres high from the sea level.

CDA is currently constructing an outer ring road on the embankment to increase road connectivity. According to CDA, this road will also protect the city from the sea storms.

“The project will be finished by the end of December 2018,” said Kazi Hasan Bin Shams, CDA superintendent engineer and the project director.

“Around 2-3km of the total embankment has been damaged. Among that, one kilometer embankment of the Khejurtola area suffered the worst of the damage. We will repair the damaged portions from our project fund,” he added.