In 1991, a cyclone ripped through the Bay of Bengal and killed
138 000 Bangladeshis. Peaceful fishing villages were turned ___1___
heaps of matchwood. the island of Kutubdia, ___2___
its sun-bleached beaches and crystal clear waters, ___3___
one of the hardest hit. About 8000 people were ___4___
when a huge tidal wave swallowed their huts and ___5___.
Some of those who survived have since ___
6 ___ new homes on a beach ___7___
the mainland, but the nightmares remain. "The memories never
stop ___8___ me," said
Mohamad Sharif who ___9___
his parents, wife and children.
"The cyclone ___10___ up
a tidal wave as high as a ten-storey building and we were all
swept ___11___. Luckily, I
managed to hold on to a ___12___
tree. But my family was not so ___13___."
Today, Sharif is remarried and has three children. ___14___
the sky turns grey, he fears ___15___
another storm would hit the villages again. "But we try not to
let the fear get to us, " he says. "If we stay with the
nightmares of the past, our lives will be useless." |