SUPER CYCLONE ORISSA

Introduction

The state of Orissa was ravaged by two consecutive cyclones, within a gap of 11 days in the month of October 1999. The first one hit four Districts - Ganjam, Gajapati, Khurda and Nayagarh and among them Ganjam was the worst affected. It left behind a trail of devastation with a death toll of 197 persons and over 1-lakh cattle. Thousands of people became homeless, uncountable number of trees were uprooted and the entire communication system collapsed. The total loss has been estimated to be more than Rs.3000 Crores. The second one hot on October 29-30, 1999 with a wind speed of 250-300 kmph affecting 12 districts of coastal Orissa. Due to tidal waves, rain and heavy wind more than 50,000 persons lost their life but officially declared as 10,000. The animal casualty was estimated to be 4.5 Lakhs, the standing paddy crop got damages in 18.43 lakh hectares, 18 lakh houses collapsed and in total it has affected 16.2 million people.

The physical infrastructure like educational building were damaged, communication and electricity network came to a halt. The floating dead bodies, saline water and water logging made the water resources unhygienic. The fear of various water-borne diseases loomed at large in the area. This cyclone, was termed as the worst disaster of the century and shattered the people of Orissa and its economy. The conservative estimate puts the loss to be more than Rs. 30,000 crores.

Objectives

The overall objective was to assist the victims of cyclone particularly the poor and the disadvantaged. The objectives were:

	To restore the communication and education infrastructure
	Health care and hygiene in the initial stage of relief
	Food assistance to the affected people Agricultural to small and marginal farmers
	Construction  and repair of houses

Geographic Location of the Partners

The details of the geographic location are given below:

The time frame the time frame was divided into two phases -crisis and post crisis phase starting from 5th November 1999 to June, 2000.

During the crisis phase (5th November to 31st December 1999) food assistance, health and medical care, children clothing, lanterns and blankets were supplied to the victims as per the money available.

The post crisis assistance (1st January to 30th June 2000) covered restoration activities such as housing repair, food security and agriculture assistance. Housing repair assistance and re-construction of houses were part of the programme. even this programme had to be withdrawn by the implementing partners due to paucity of funds. It was beginning of the forgotten emergency.

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