Cyclone still tears through lives

When the cyclone struck her village Hanagotha in Erasama block in 1999,widow Renubala Patro,now 55,lost her three sons and two daughters to the surging waters. The compensation of Rs 3.75 lakh she subsequently received did not qualify as relief and she tried to commit suicide twice. The water,it just came up so fast. Waist-deep one moment and neck-deep the next. My son pleaded with me to save him. I can never forget his face. I was washed away by the waves and found four days later hundreds of metres away, she recalls. At night,all that I can think is of my dead children. Why did I survive?

JYOTSNARANI DAS

Das was living a life of contentment with her tailor husband,two kids and mother-in-law in their modest home at Kalikuda village under Japa panchayat of Erasama block when the cyclone struck. Her mother-in-law chided her when she suggested that they move away from their thatched house to the Red Cross cyclone shelter before the cyclone. The entire family was killed except Jyotsnarani,who was found near the cyclone shelter about a week later,disoriented and hungry. A few days later,she found the bodies of her children. I am yet to get the compensation money of my two children. Local villagers have taken thousands of rupees from me promising that I will get compensation. Everyone makes me run around. How long can I go without the compensation money?

RED CROSS NAYAK

On October 29 this year,Nayak turned 10 years old. Born in the Red Cross cyclone shelter of Khuranto in Erasama on the night of the cyclone,the child was named after his birthplace. As the water rose around Khuranto,Basanti Nayaks labour pains also kept pace. A pregnant Basanti and her husband Khirod managed to swim in the neck-deep water to the Red Cross shelter. As the child was born,someone found a 20-paise coin and sharpened it to cut the umbilical chord. He survived and is today studies at a primary school. His family still lives in penury.

RUBEN BANERJEE

Then special correspondent of India Today,he wrote the only authoritative book on the 1999 disaster,The Orissa Tragedy. Now a senior editor of Al Jazeeras English website,he lives in Doha. He still hasnt forgotten the disaster. I saw more decaying human carcasses than I have seen in my entire reporting career. I am yet to fully overcome the scale of death and destruction that confronted us that day, he says. But I have genuine doubts as to whether our extensive reportage sufficed in conveying the gigantic misfortune that had befallen the state. For if it had,at least some heads should have rolled for the mismanagement that followed the cyclone. Looking back,I still have anger welling up inside me. The collective failure of the government was appalling. He adds that he still has some guilt about the plight of the victims whose stories he documented. I often wonder where they are and how they are. Having fed on their plight after all,they were the fodder for our stories and books did we finally leave them in the lurch?

I dont remember anything,but I sometimes search for my parents

He was only five years old,but Khokan Parmanik still remembers how on October 29,1999,the sea rose up and ravaged his village Kankana in Erasama block. The waves also swept away his father,mother and younger brother. When the water from the sea rushed towards us,my grandmother and I climbed a banyan tree. I saw people and animals getting washed away, said Parmanik,now a Standard 9 student.

Ten years on,the impact of the October 29 super cyclone of Orissa is still felt by a generation that was too young then to remember much,if anything,about that day. To fill in the gaps they have to rely on anecdotes and even folklore. The school textbooks have no account of the cyclone.

Madhuri Das of Sunadiha village was also a young child when the cyclone struck,but she still remembers how her father gave her sister to her mother amid the swirling waters. He told my mother,you keep one daughter and Ill keep one. I was with my father. My mother,my sister,and my grandparents were swept away, said the 14-year-old girl,now a student of Japa High School. The memories of the 20-ft wall still sends shivers down her spine. But there are others to whom the cyclone seems like a distant fable. Kalia Jena,a Standard 10 student of Ambiki High School,lost his father,mother,brother and sister to the cyclone. I dont remember anything,but I sometimes search for my parents, he said.

Similarly,Gobinda Maity of Dahibara lost his entire family. Gobinda,then 8,says,I no longer remember their faces.

Official apathy,efficiency

SUDHANSU BHUSHAN MISHRA

While the state lay battered,its Chief Secretary Sudhansu Bhushan Mishra thought it fit to fly out to the US on November 9 to see his daughter,who was expecting her first child. The outrage among his colleagues and the PMOs threat to suspend him if he went on leave did not deter him. He returned to Orissa only on November 26,but his departure at the time when the state was in a deep crisis,shattered the reputation of the bureaucracy making it a point of ridicule and contempt. Now retired,Mishra is the chairman of the eastern regional committee of the National Council for Teachers Education.

GIRIDHAR GAMANG

The then chief minister spent the night before the cyclone consulting astrologers instead of focusing on ways to tackle the impending disaster. In the following days,he continued to lord over a bumbling state administration which failed to provide relief to the affected interiors even as trucks carrying food jammed Bhubaneswar. Though relief material poured in,there was not enough for those who needed it the most. With his continuity becoming an embarrassment for 10,Janpath,he was asked to resign. Lost the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

D N PADHI

The then special relief commissioner SRC came under a cloud following a controversy over irregularities in the purchase of polythene sheets. He was later cleared of the charges. Padhis 45-day tenure as SRC was marked by sheer inefficiency as the phone numbers the SRCs office put out in newspapers for victims to call in case of emergency were wrong. Now the chief information commissioner of the Orissa Information Commission,he says,It was my first assignment as SRC. People have a tendency to find fault. We did our best.

SAROJ JHA

The IIT-educated Orissa-cadre IAS officer was on deputation to the WHO as its national coordinator on tribal health when the cyclone hit. Stationed in southernmost Motu of Malkangiri district,Jha was summoned by the chief secretary to come back to Bhubaneswar from where he was sent to Erasama. Jha was a saviour to the cyclone survivors and stood in contrast to the bumbling bureaucracy and political class. He personally supervised distribution of relief in Erasama,setting up a free kitchen and overseeing the disposal of corpses. After the relief work was over,the government,goaded by him,set up 36 Mamata Gruhas or shelter houses for the destitute women and orphans of Erasama. Jha is now based in

Washington where he is Manager and head of World Banks Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.

NAVEEN PATNAIK

Then president of new-found Biju Janata Dal and Union minister for steel and mines,he led convoys of SUVs to the interior villages. Naveen was the biggest beneficiary of the cyclone as he rode to power on the back of popular disenchantment with cyclone relief mismanagement. Now three -times CM of the state.