Odisha grapples to restore electricity and water after cyclone Fani

Odisha grappled on Saturday to restore electricity supply after the devastating cyclone Fani hit the state on Friday. The cyclone with a wind speed of 180 Kilometres per hour uprooted trees, electric poles, telecom towers and wreaked havoc on the infrastructure.

While it is too early to estimate the extent of the damage, thousands of people are feared to have lost their livelihood. And the state government is struggling to maintain essential services, restore electricity and supply drinking water. To maintain sanitation and hygiene in the absence of drinking water remains a challenge.

The relief and rescue operation by the state government, has been applauded by everyone. Photographs of officials and policemen going door to door, pleading with people to shift to cyclone shelters had gone viral on social media even before the cyclone it the Odisha coast. Following a devastating cyclone in 1999, when thousands of people had lost their lives and when bodies of people were washed away several kilometres from where they lived, Odisha had built hundreds of cyclone shelters along the coast.

The cyclone shelters designed by IIT Kharagpur seem to have withstood the cyclone well. But several buildings built later bore the brunt of the cyclone which blew away doors, shattered window panes and destroyed roadside kiosks.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took to Twitter to point out that “ a record of 1.2 million people were evacuated in 24 hours, 3.2 lakh from Ganjam, 1.3 lakh from Puri & almost 7000 kitchens catering to 9000 shelters were made functional overnight. This mammoth exercise involved more than 45,000 volunteers.” The state had also deployed 300 power boats, two helicopters and many chain saws, to cut downed trees. Truckloads of food and bottled water were delivered to the shelters.

A report in the New York Times acknowledged the stupendous work done by the Odisha Government and published it under the headline: “How do you save a million people from a cyclone ? Ask a poor state in India”. (link below)

The report quotes the state’s special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi saying, “This is not the work of a day or a month but of 20 years.”

Sethi informed that they sent out 2.6 million text messages, 43,000 volunteers, nearly 1,000 emergency workers, television commercials, coastal sirens, buses, police officers, and public address systems blaring the same message on a loop, in local language, in very clear terms: “A cyclone is coming. Get to the shelters.”

The NYT report can be read here