Bhola cyclone

civil engineering

1. Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh 1970

2. Group Members: 2016-BT-CIVIL-701 2016-BT-CIVIL-704 2016-BT-CIVIL-705 2016-BT-CIVIL-720 2016-BT-CIVIL-735

3. Cyclone Cyclone  is an area of closed, circular fluid motion characterized by inwardly spiraling winds.

4. Bhola Cyclone The name “Bhola” is not the actual name of this cyclone, but it is the name of the Island in Bangladesh where it made landfall. Bhola in Urdu language means “cute” or “unaware”.  Bhola was responsible for the death of “500,000” people, it is the most deadliest hurricane in the history of mankind.

5. Bhola Cyclone A tropical storm “Nora” (cyclone) developed in the South china sea, Western Pacific Ocean on October 31 and crossed into North Indian Ocean on November 5, at that time it was a remnant low pressure. Remnants of Nora again intensified into a depression on November 8 and intensified gradually to become a major cyclone on November 11, it had winds up to 115 mph.

6. Where and When ? The cyclone formed over the central  Bay of Bengal  . Started from November 8 th . Dissipated on November 13 th . Traveled northward (East Pakistan), intensifying as it did so. It reached its peak with winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) on November 11.

7. Made landfall on the coast of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) . The Cyclone flooded densely populated lowland plains of the Ganges Delta and wiped out hundreds of villages overnight on November 12th during an above average lunar high tide. In the most severely affected  Upazila ,  Tazumuddin , over 45% of the population of 167,000 was killed by the storm.

8. It is considered one of the deadliest weather-related disaster both due to natural and human causes. The Bhola Cyclone began with the help of a left over tropical storm that was breaking up in the Pacific Ocean . This particular cyclone set off a chain of events that in the end started a civil war, created the state of Bangladesh It was a Category 4 Cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

9. When people were interviewed after the event, they described horrific scenes of watching their children being swept away by the strong current. Government officials concluded that the majority of the dead from the official impact of the cyclone were women and children because they were not strong enough to hold on too trees when the water came.

10. Hurdles In Recovery Process Relief efforts were slow for so many tragic reasons. Bodies were not buried quickly enough.  Cholera and other diseases broke out.  People ate tree roots and drank water from ponds in which corpses were rotting because they had no other choice.

11. The Pakistani government was severely criticized for its handling of relief operations following the disaster. The opposition Awami League gained a landslide victory during general elections held that December in the province, partially a result of the national government’s failed relief efforts.

12. Recover & Relief Two medical relief surveys were carried out by the Pakistan- SEATO  Cholera Research Laboratory: the first in November and the second in February and March. The purpose of the first survey was to establish the immediate medical needs in the affected regions, and the second, more detailed, survey was designed as the basis for long-term relief and recovery planning.

13. The day after the storm struck the coast, three Pakistani gunboats and a hospital ship carrying medical personnel and supplies left  Chittagong  for the islands of  Hatia ,  Sandwip  and  Kutubdia . Pakistani President  Yahya Khan  returned from a state visit to China and overflew the disaster area on November 16. The president ordered "no effort to be spared" to relieve the victims.

14. The Pakistani government had allocated a further $116 million to finance relief operations in the disaster area. Yahya Khan arrived in  Dhaka  to take charge of the relief operations on November 24 . Teams from the Pakistani army reached many of the stricken areas in the two days following the landfall of the cyclone

15. International response An appeal by the British  Disasters Emergency Committee  raised about £1.5 million for disaster relief in East Pakistan A reporter for the  Pakistan Observer  spent a week in the worst hit areas in early January and saw none of the tents supplied by relief agencies being used to house survivors and commented that the grants for building new houses were insufficient.

16. India  became one of the first nations to offer aid to Pakistan, despite the generally poor  relations  between the two countries, and by the end of November had pledged $1.3 million of assistance for the relief efforts.  The Pakistani government refused to allow the Indians to send supplies into East Pakistan by air, forcing them to be transported slowly by road instead.

17. The Indian government also said that the Pakistanis refused an offer of military aircraft, helicopters and boats from  West Bengal  to assist in the relief operation US President  Richard Nixon  allocated a $10 million grant to provide food and other essential relief to the survivors of the storm, and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan pledged that he would "assist the East Pakistan government in every way feasible.

18. The first shipment of Chinese supplies to East Pakistan was a planeload of 500,000 doses of cholera vaccine, which was not necessary as the country had adequate stocks. The Chinese government sent $1.2 million in cash to Pakistan. The Japanese cabinet approved a total of $1.65 million of relief funds in December. The Japanese government had previously drawn criticism for only donating a small amount to relief work

19. Some 200,000 tons of wheat were shipped from the United States to the stricken region. The Canadian government pledged $2 million of assistance.   France and  West Germany  both sent helicopters and various supplies worth $1.3 million The government of Singapore sent a military medical mission to East Pakistan which arrived at Chittagong on December 1, 1971.

20. They were then deployed to  Sandwip  where they treated nearly 27,000 people and carried out a  smallpox  vaccination effort. The mission returned to Singapore on December 22, after bringing about $50,000 worth of medical supplies and 15 tons of food for the victims of the storm The United Nations donated $2.1 million in food and cash. The bank drew up a comprehensive recovery plan for the Pakistani government.

21. UNICEF helped to re-establish water supplies in the wake of the storm, repairing over 11,000 wells in the months. The  World Bank  estimated that it would cost $185 million to reconstruct the area devastated by the storm. The Bank provided $25 million of credit to help rebuild the East Pakistan economy and to construct protective shelters in the region. By the start of December, nearly $40 million had been raised for the relief efforts by the governments of 41 countries, organizations.