The 1999 Orissa cyclone

The 1999 Orissa cyclone

I was a class 9^th student then and my dussehra vacation had just started.

It was on the evening of October 17 1999 when the storm ripped across the Gopalpur coast that is only 20 Km from my home.

We knew about that 1 day before as it was all over the news, people were already gossiping about it but no one had imagined the amount of destruction it can do. All we could do at that time was to wait and hope that the things wont be too bad.

It has been raining since the evening and electricity was already cut. Rain was getting heavier all the time. I went to sleep but the continuous noise of the wind was not letting us to sleep. I Didn’t remembered the exact time but it was surely the over midnight when I heard a big glass cracking sound, the strong wind has actually broken a window glass, we were too scared to go and find out. The wind was making continuous sound whole night.

The next day things were little better, it was raining but not that heavily. The first thing I noticed that the electric pole right in front my house was half bent. Everyone out side was talking about the last night. Phone lines were cut and there was no electricity as well. These things took around 15 days to come back. Rain has stopped and I went to meet a few friends of mine my Parents warned to come back soon as you never know cyclone might repeat itself.

I went outside and actually was shocked and shattered to see the destruction. My own city looked strange to me. It was terrible to see all the big trees which I have seen for many years are all now ripped off the ground. And those trees that were strong enough to survive the night were all bent to one side. Things like sign boards, pan shops, tea stalls all had collapsed. Some of electric poles like the one in front my houses were on the ground with their wires shredded.

All the schools have already turned into emergency relief centers including mine. Some of my friends who were staying at about 3-4 KMS from the coast have described that water was up to their knee level inside their house at night, we can imagine the condition near to the coast.

Later schools declared an additional 10 day leave. Things were slowly settling done but after 10 days an even bigger cyclone hit another part of Orissa and that was much bigger and powerful cyclone and the consequences were devastating.

I have some data from Wikipedia describing the impact. It says,

Tens of thousands of families from the coastal districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, and Ganjam were forced to evacuate their homes before the storm's arrival. More than 44,500 people took shelter in twenty three Red Cross cyclone shelters that were built by the German Red Cross.[4]

Approximately 275,000 homes were destroyed, leaving 1.67 million people homeless. Another 19.5 million people were affected by the super cyclone to some degree.

I pray to god that such incidents should not happen again and I urge you all if such things happen please help the people, donate generously, through the proper channel, send it directly to Prime minister’s relief fund or to only renowned NGO’s.

Thank you.