CYCLONE PHAILIN — THE AFTERMATH
An appeal for Assistance
Cyclone Phailin hit the Odisha coast just south of the famous Gopalpur beach (Ganjam district) on the night of Oct 12, 2013. With wind speeds exceeding 200kph and preceded by torrential rain this was the most severe and dangerous weather system to assault Odisha after the Super Cyclone in Oct 1999. The Super Cyclone claimed over 10,000 lives, but this time around, a massive forced evacuation restricted the loss of lives to under 50. Everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief as the state government did its job much better than anyone had expected.
Unfortunately what has happened subsequently is pretty much a repeat of the status in 1999, with the situation being compounded by another depression and consequent heavy rainfall. Ganjam district is the worst affected and the damage assessment by the district collector as on October 19, 2013 is summarized below:
No. of Villages affected 3,229
Population affected (in lakhs) 37 lakhs
Area where crop damage was more than 50 % 1,95,674 Ha
No. of House damaged 2,38,000
Loss to Life Stock 6,670
Loss to poultry 2,16,814
In addition to these damages, there were massive damage to infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, telephone communication and roads in many areas.
The situation today is that even 15 days after the event the administration has not been able to reach many remote villages with largely tribal and dalit populations. There has also been large scale loss of houses and crops in the two adjoining districts of Gajapati and Nayagarh where we work in and some of our Jansathis have seen their homes being badly damaged.
We plan to intervene using the following strategy (with a tentative cost per family)-
- Emergency rations to the families in the village we work in only if the government fails to deliver – Rs. 1000 per family
- Fodder for animals – Rs. 500/- per family
- Seed and fertilizers to grow paddy on 1 acre for the next crop to be planted in December Rs. 2500/- per family
- Assistance for house rebuilding (if government fails to deliver)- Rs. 1000/- per family
So far Government provided 50 kg rice and Rs. 500/- to the affected families as an immediate relief and recently they announced the house building assistance to the people who lost their houses in this disaster.
Many of you have contributed to our Uttarakhand rehabilitation effort, but this too also requires all the resources you can spare. All donations will be eligible for IT exemption under 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The details are given below.
You can send the donations to us at our address or directly to our account:
Atmashakti Trust
101 A, Friends Colony (East),
New Delhi 110065,
India.
Cheques to made in the favour of ‘ATMASHAKTI’
Account Name : Atmashakti
Bank Name : HDFC
Address : D-965, New Friends Colony, New Delhi 110065.
Account No. : 00891450000302
Branch : New friends Colony
IFSC : HDFC0000089
