Post cyclone adjustment process: basic needs perspective

The focus of the study is to understand post-cclone adjustment process in different areas of Sandwip island after the cyclone-1991. The study is mainly based on field data collected from December 2001-January 2002 through door-to-door survey of cyclone-victims. Field observation indicates that the island of Sandwip can be divided into three zones according to surge height of the cyclone namely: Badly Affected Area(BAA), Moderately Affected Area(MAA) and Less Affected Area(LAA). The people living in the badly affected area were more prone to devastiation. The island people adopted necessary measures to reduce loss in post-cyclone period and extended themselves all sorts of cooperation to cope with the situation. Inernal food-exchanges were observed in large scale. The first seven days after cyclone was very crucial time for the survivors, but they remained without Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations(NGOs) help. The stucy shows that the rescue, relief and rehabilitation programs of the government and NGO's were poor and were launched wuite late after the cyclone in the island. The people of badly affected area received poor attention and experienced late relief and rehabilitation programs as against the rest two areas. Thus spationtemporal discriminating in distribution of relief and rehabilitation items such as food, clothing, housing and medicine were also observed in post-cyclone period.