The anomalous absorption of an ordinary polarized radio wave due to magnetic field aligned short-scale striations is studied. By the method of averaging, a correction term to the cold plasma dielectric tensor can be derived. The correction term behaves singularly at the upper hybrid level, inducing new cutoff and resonance. A situation analogous to the Budden tunneling problem arises. Thus the anomalous absorption is necessarily accompanied by partial reflection at the upper hybrid level. A consequence is that the absorption coefficient has a maximum at a certain striation intensity, with reflection dominating at higher intensities. This is expected to be important for the saturation of the process generating the striations.