The cyclonic havoc has plunged whole of Chittagong district into a completely dark zone.

The administration and local leaders have Ijeen overwhelmed in the task of assessing the extent of loss of lives and property and mounting relief operation in the affected areas.

During a visit by this correspondent from Fenl to Cha-karia not a single tin shed or thatched house was found unaffected by the cyclone on either side of the highways.

The Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong in a high level meeting at the Circuit House Thursday last estimated apart from • the loss of lives total

damage to property, industries. infrastructures and standing crop would not be less than US dollars two billion in Chittagong district alone.

Industrial damage was colossal. said an administrative source.

This correspondent also talked to the local administration and was disappointed at the lack of a comprehensive disaster management programme. District administration sources said that during the last few years all instructions In such cases used to come from the President's Secretariat. As a result of such centralization the traditional disaster management system had collapsed.

Commenting on the present relief operation, one magistrate of Chittagong district said: "The relief operation so far has also been disastrous.''

During a visit to the industrial area of Chittagong this correspondent found that all the Industrial units except the Progati, Hashmi Can Company and Gazi Wires were completely damaged. The Progati. Hashmi Can Company and Gazi Wires were also partially damaged. Almost all the units of export processing zone were affected badly. The fish processing plants in Patenga were also damaged while sources of raw materials of these plants, l.e. shrimp culture area at From Psge I Col. 4 Chakarta was washed away. The infrastructure of shrimp production tn this area was com pietely ruined.

The Chittagong Steel Mills which has been running on a bank overdraft of Taka 800 million was severely damaged. The loss at this one Industry would not be less than Taka 300 crore, said an adrrSnistrs tive official.

Due to collapse of 70 per cent of boundary wall the security of the mills is at risk.

Sixty per cent of the tin shed roof of the mills has been blown away, wbile all machinery remained submerged under water that was whipped up during the tidal surge for nearly 24 hours. Due to water logging Inside the mills the machinery had become silted. The underground motors of the mills are still under kneedeep water. The dewatering of the mills could not be done by the Fire Service yet.

Former MP of the area Llaquat All. who once used to work in the mills, said the administration could not take proper measures to build a water preventing barricade by closing the doors of each mill with sandbags.

The workers' colony was completely damaged due to the tidal surge. Diarrhoea has broken out in the colony in an epidemic form, said a security man.

The hardware parts and tools stores, the furnace mill, the galvanizing shop and other mills were all silted up. Work for cleaning up of the mills has not yet been started.

A huge quantity of refractory bricks imported from abroad recently by the mills has been completely damaged due to the saline waters. Those wilf not be of any use anymore." said an official.

Production In the Eastern Refinery would not be possible without dewatering of the saline water from the plant. The refining mill of the country's only refinery has completely gone out of order due to the tidal surge.

An oil tanker of the Burmah Eastern Company was scuttled on Monday night, spilling oil throughout the Patenga area and posing a serious ecological threat.

The Cement Clinker Factory, the TSP. and the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory, the GEM plant, the Jamuna and Padma oil depots. Eastern Cables, the Dry Dock, etc., have been damaged due to the onrush of sea water. The Dry Dock still remains submerged.

In the Nasirabad. Kalurghat. Sitakundu and Barabkundu industrial areas, almost all the industries have been damaged to greater or lessen extent due to the cyclone.

Electricity supply, which was completely disrupted, will

stored only in the different to restore supply to the shops dential areas. A Power Deve correspondent that the rural electrification system will need at least two more months before becoming normal.

the damaged mills and facto ties said it would not be possible to begin the rehabilitation works of the units unless elec-triclty supply is restored.

The small and intermediary businessmen at Chaktal. Fer-inghee Bazar and Bangia Bazar

cyclone.

Abdus Salam Sawdagar of Bangia Bazar told this corre •pondent that kb water gush-ing through the Karnaphull river had washed away his fertilizer godown Incurring a loss of Taka about five lakh.

One businessman at Chaktal said that his rice godown was washed away by the tidal surge. Whatever remained In the godown had become unfit for human consumption. He put his losses at Taka 10 lakh

About 100 rice mills at Chaktal had gone under water.

The WASA and Municipal Corporation are trying to restore the supply of drinking water. But the progress of work Is rather stow. Again, due to lack of electricity, water cannot be drawn from the ground level to the top floors of the multi-storied buildings.

The Chittagong port has become totally inoperative as either sunk or had run aground at the estuary of the river Karnaphull.

The rescue vessel of the Port Authority. ShaktT. is stlU aground near the Karnaphull bridge. The vessel dashed against the newly-constructed Taka 150 crore bridge damaging it badly by snapping the spans in the very middle.

At least several hundred country boats or engine-pow-aged or sunk In the Karnaphull during the cyclone.

The channels wtll have to be cleared, the jetties repaired before normal navigation can resume.