Orissa victims recount October 29, 1999 super cyclone

BHUBANESWAR: For the 58-year-old widow of Chandanpur village is Orissa's Balasore district, it brings back memories of that fateful black Friday when the monster gale snatched away everything leaving her alone.
"That day was Friday," she shivered. Ratnamani lost her husband in the October 29, 1999 super cyclone. Even though 11 years have passed since the deadly disaster struck Orissa, the tragedy still haunts lakhs of people in the 14 coastal districts of Orissa.Still they shed tears recounting the horrifying scenes and nature's fury on that day.
"I and my husband were inside home as our two sons were out to work in a private company in Kolkata. That day we were asleep in our mud-walled thatched house. But to our surprise, we suddenly discovered water inside the room and heard screams outside. Before we could know anything we came out of the house, started walking in the water towards our village main road," recalled Ratnamani.
"While the village youths were accompanying us, my husband was with some others. But when we reached on the road that connects with the national highway, I couldn't find my husband. Despite a long search by the village youths, he remained untraced. Three days later his body was found near a bush," she broke down.
This widow still remembered each and every incident of the devastation. "How can I forget those things? The day three children were swept away, while more than a hundred houses had collapsed. We all had taken shelter on the road for days together. In fact I was without food for three days till my sons reached home hearing the cyclone news," she said.
Though over a decade has already passed, it seems as if time has stopped for 55-year-old Kusuma Mallik of Patripur village in Bhadrak district. She had lost her only son on that fateful day. "He had gone for fishing on that day before the cyclone hit the village. All the five fishermen, along with him, are yet to be traced. As we didn't get their bodies, we are deprived of ex-gratia amount," she said with chocked voice.
"We ran from pillar to post. But the district authorities didn't hear our plea as we couldn't produce death certificate of my son. We however, have been granted a house under IAY scheme, where now we are staying. But still the scenes of the disaster haunt and I start trembling when it comes to my mind," she said.
Khokan Parmanik, then a six-year-old boy, still remembers how the sea rose up and ravaged his village Kankana in Erasama block. The waves had 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. Later I found my father, mother and brother dead," said Khokan, now a Class 10 student.
The impact of the October 29 super cyclone is still felt by the generation that was too young then to remember much, if anything, about that day. 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 I'll keep one. I was with my father. My mother, my sister, and my grandparents were swept away," said the 15-year-old girl, now a student of a local school. The memories of the 20-ft wall still send shivers down her spine.
The super cyclone in Orissa in October 29, 1999, was perhaps the most destructive natural calamity in India in last century. With a wind speed of nearly 300kms and incessant rains that lasted for about 48 hours with a total downpour between 447 mm and 995 mm and tidal waves, washed away everything which came under its way. There was massive damage to humans, animals, houses, vegetation, livelihood and the environment. Over 15 million people in the 14 districts were affected. Almost 20 000 persons were killed. The total estimated damages were 39680 million INR.