Bara, April 5

The deadly storm in Bara and Parsa that killed 28 people and flattened hundreds of houses on Sunday night has left behind a deep psychological impact on children. The traumatised children are struggling to come to terms with the nature’s fury.

In Bara, Indra Prasad Yadav’s three-year-old and five-year-old sons are scared to the bone and can’t forget the panic caused by the storm, the first they had experienced in their life. Indra Prasad was feeding his sons, Rahul and Radheshyam, at his Hardiya-based home in Subarna Rural Municipality when the storm struck.

“Barely had I sat down to feed them when I heard a roaring sound outside. Well before I could even make sense of what was happening, the storm ripped off the roof and knocked down a wall,” Indra Prasad recounted. “A brick that fell from the collapsed wall struck the younger one. He remained unconscious for a day. He still cringes in fear when someone talks about the storm,” Indra Prasad lamented. The condition of the five-year-old son is no better.

For Gagandev Ram’s children in the same village, horror of the deadly storm is still freshly etched in their mind. “My youngest sons Ritesh and Nitesh are aged two and four, respectively, while daughter Ragani is six. They still look petrified by the storm. Other children of the village are also terrified,” said Ram.

Another storm victim Lori Prasad Yadav saved himself and his wife and five kids by hiding under the cot when the raging storm swept away the roof and started blowing away everything in the house.

“My daughters aged three to 11 years were reading when the storm struck. Had we not hidden under the bed, we would have been killed,” said Lori Prasad, adding his daughters could never forget the storm scare.