People tossed about like toys, homes smashed to bits

TWISTER CUTS TERROR TRAIL






Subhro Maitra | TNN



Kulik (Raiganj): In the dead of night, they stood on a deserted highway, clutching each other by the waist, some tying gamchhas around one another in a desperate live-together-die-together bid. None of them had any hope of seeing the sun rise. When huge trees were being smashed like toothpicks, what chance did a few shivering men and women stand?
The tornado tore into them, lifting them off the ground. After brief seconds of terror, their screams drowned in the roaring wind, their feet would touch the earth. Then, the horror would start all over again.
All around them, tin roofs, branches and debris flew about like missiles. Suddenly, everything stopped. The wind vanished. The nightmare had lasted 45 minutes. Now, they have to battle its scars.
In Forest Para (so named because it is next to the biggest bird sanctuary in Bengal), the freak storm that lashed three states and killed at least 107 people at midnight on Tuesday, smashed everything around. Luckily, it killed none here. Fifty km away, in Bazar Gaon, nine people died and around 50 are still missing. No one knows where the tornado blew them away.
The storm struck when most people were outdoors, thanks to the unbearable heat. Seventy-year-old Nathni Mahato remembers smiling as the first cold gust of wind hit his face at 11.30pm. “Within seconds, I realized it was not a gentle night breeze. The wind came roaring in. It was unbelievably strong and seemed to pluck me up. I rushed into my hut to wake up my wife,” Nathni told TOI on Wednesday, standing amid the ruins of what was once his hut.
In the few seconds it took for him to reach his shanty, the wind was already tearing up everything inside. His wife cowered, terrified. Together, they battled their way out. “There was not even a second to pick up any valuables or even money. We heard a rending noise. The roof was torn off the rafters and blown away. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Then, we heard one loud noise after another,” said Nathni. It was the sound of trees crashing. “I screamed, but no sound came out. I have never been so terrified.”
A large tree tottered and slammed against an electricity tower. They both crashed. In an instant, the lights went out. In the darkness, there was only the sound of trees being wrenched from their roots, huts being smashed and people screaming.
They all ran to NH-34. In the lightning flashes, Nathni saw his hut pounded to nothing. “There was a forest bungalow nearby but going there meant risking being crushed under a falling tree. We tied ourselves to each other and prayed.”
Around the same time, Subhankar Sengupta, deputy field director of Buxa Tiger Reserve, was closing in on Raiganj on his way to Kolkata. “I have seen many a storm, but none like this. It started as a blinding sandstorm and quickly turned into a tornado. Our SUV was lifted off the ground. We could see branches twisting and flying around. Tin sheets slammed into our vehicle. It was a nightmare,” he said.
In Bazar Gaon of Karandighi, the worst affected block in the thunderstorm, every hut was levelled to the ground. “Eight or nine of our people died. It struck out of the blue. One moment we were cursing the heat and the next we were fleeing for our lives. People were lifted off their feet and hurled about like toys,” said 63-year-old Md Abdul Salam. Hundreds of villagers packed into the only pucca building around, a high school. “At daybreak, we went back to see our lives utterly devastated,” said Salam.
In Tunivita, between Forest Para and Bazar Gaon, divine intervention saved the 80-odd families. Most of them were out attending Manasa Gaan — a concert of devotional songs — when the storm struck. “Had we been sleeping, many of us would have died,” said Omar Farooq. “I left my house for the concert. Fifteen minutes later, when I staggered back in the thunderstorm, it was gone. The whole house had vanished.”
Only Kartik Biswas’ family had not gone to the programme. The villagers found the 70-year-old paralysis patient, his wife and children trapped under their collapsed house. They were rescued badly injured.