29^th October, Friday still reminds about dead bodies of man and animal, devastated houses and a state of chaos among the only cyclone affected people of coastal Orissa. The dreadful super cyclone, at a speed of 350 km per hour, on this ‘Black Friday’ wrecked the entire psycho-socio-economic backbone of the state. It is reported that Orissa has gone back to 100 years of its development.

It was one of the biggest natural calamities of the globe during 20^th century.  The loss was irreparable. The 12 affected districts - Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Puri, Balasore, Khurda, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak, Nayagarh and Keonjhar- pulled national and international attractions. 

The intensity of the cyclone was so high that the world declared it super cyclone. More than 10 million populations, figuring half of the population of the state were affected by this natural disaster. Normal life was paralyzed. The whole day witnessed nature’s fury. Some of the panic- stricken people were fortunate to get shelter in pucca houses. They immediately shifted to the ‘relatively safer’ place without looking back. Man animal shared same roof, even same room. Survival of the fittest was the law of the hour.

Entire Orissa was cut off from the rest of the world. The national highways, villages and roads were totally blocked by uprooted trees and were surrounded by rainwater. Lakhs of Kuchha houses were devastated. High altitude sea waves came with a height of 27 feet, devastating regions up to 20-35 Kms from the sea. Incessant downpour, coupled with wind followed for three days, continuously.  People could not move for three days and whole situation was cocooned with fear, panic, and chaos. 

In addition to human lives, the magnitude of loss affected wild varieties of trees, plants, flora fauna and livestock. Officially 9885 deaths were reported. However, from the unconfirmed sources, the toll was more than 45000. The environment of the affected area was polluted due to rotten branches, leafs, trees and the dead-bodies, which are rife everywhere.  As a result, epidemics were broken out and deaths due to this increased to 40,000 above as per an unconfirmed source. 

During this destructive natural disaster and aftermath NYSASDRI, as a responsible development agency in the state came forward with relief and rehabilitation activities. The relief work of NYSASDRI was started from its host village itself. A separate disaster mitigation committee was set up and the work was taken-up on war footing. Provision of survival needs such as cooked food, drinking water, candle etc was given to the nearby villages of three Gram Panchayat. Temporary camps were organized in villages to provide immediate services like food and medicines.

Relief work was started in the worst affected areas only from 2^nd of November 1999- three days after the cyclone. Four teams consisting of fifteen social workers rushed to the Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal districts. Dry materials such as rice and puffed rice was distributed to each family and kerosene at the rate of 2 litres per family was also provided.

Two medical mobile units headed by Doctors started their work in the areas, where epidemic was about to start. The organisation provided free medicines and health check-up service to the affected people. Bleaching powder, phenyl, halogen tablets and other anti epidemic drugs were also supplied to avoid epidemics. To get rid of the pungent smell of animal and human carcasses, phenyl was spread and care was taken to bury the corpse. The relief distributing team was also engaged in clearing roads to the remote villages and it tried to reach those villages where no other relief team had reached.

In the meanwhile, The HelpAge India; DIK, Germany; OIK, Austria; SMF, Norway; Udyogini, New Delhi and several other individuals came forward to reinforce the service of NYSASDRI. It was a significant boost for the organisation as well as the social workers. The relief and rehabilitation operation picked up pace. Necessary commodities such as rice, dal, mustered oil, blanket, plastic sheet to cover roof, salt, candle, kerosene and clothes for women & children were distributed. Latter, in order to restore houses of victims, the organisation supplied Bamboo, straw, wood bim with values of Rs.2500/-. Similarly, steel utensils consisting of plates, bowl, buckets, glass, tumbler, kadhai and one small & big spoon were provided to people. The organisation also constructed 36 houses in Raghunathpur block of Dhenkanal district. 

During its relief and rehabilitation work NYSASDRI tried its best to reach the un-reached and remote areas of the affected region. Similarly, areas, which are affected but not highlighted by the media, were also prioritised in the agenda. Keonjhar was one of such districts, which though not severely affected in comparison to other affected areas, but still the trail of destruction was quite prevalent. In this condition, NYSASDRI with the help of its staff and village volunteers tried to reach the neediest of the needy and supported them by providing food stuff, blanket, plastic sheet, kerosene, lamp and lots of other essential commodities. 

In brief, the organisation, with its limited resources and external assistance covered more than two lakhs people comprising of about 50 thousand families. Though the assistance was not at a large scale, it was really very appropriate with respect to time. The immediate and necessary service was very helpful to save lives of many. The cooked food, distributed by the organisation saved many people from starvation. The distribution of lantern was like a ray in the dark night- devoid of electricity. Simultaneously, the medical and sanitation service avoided epidemics in several areas. The assistance for housing and polyethylene sheet restored roof above many heads.

In the latter phase, it also took up capacity building for disaster preparedness and economic empowerment activities for the victims. IGP activities thorough Micro-Finance, cyclone proof houses, education, drinking water, health sector and agricultural activity were the major initiatives by the organisation. 

Details of NYSASDRI’s Relief and Rehabilitation Activity during Super Cyclone 1999.