An account of me witnessing the cyclone 'Phailin' at home in Cuttack.
Events on 12th October 2013
Cuttack, Odisha.
It had become known from 9th October that a tropical storm had gathered over the Bay of Bengal and was headed towards Odisha. It was scheduled to hit the Odisha coast on the evening of 12th October making a landfall in Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Berhampur districts at speeds touching 250 kmph. Since Cuttack is a bit inland, the cyclone was expected to get there about 4-5 hours after landfall i.e. at 10-11 pm, and pass over in 6-7 hours after that.
Precautions
These were taken keeping the aftermath of the 1999 super cyclone in mind. That had a speed of 300 kmph at the coast and 200 kmph in Cuttack. This had been predicted to hit the coast at pretty much the similar speed. Then, the cyclone had been so devastating that there had been no water for 4-5 days afterwards. I remember hauling water from a bore well a hundred metres away and standing in a pretty long line every time to do so. There had been no electricity for a week. Trees had uprooted and blocked roads, and a cycle was much better than a car or motorcycle as it could snake its way through gaps and could be lifted over roadblocks. Food was not available as shops were closed, and was being sold in black for or 20 times the original cost. I was a kid so I don’t remember much else.
1.Fill all vehicles to the brim with petrol, and get some extra in a bottle. I went to get my bike filled on 11th, but there were crazy crowds at all filling stations. Besides only vehicles were being filled with petrol and nobody with a bottle was being given any. So, do this work days in advance.
2.Get a lot of money out of ATMs as they will run out within a couple of days. Everyone will withdraw at the same time, and the banks won’t refill them as they would be closed.
3.Charge mobiles and laptops to the fullest. Power supply was discontinued by the electricity department as a precaution after wind speed reached 40 kmph on 12th morning.
4.Get batteries for torches, and candles for lighting purposes.
5.Water: both for washing and drinking. I put a couple of drums out on the terrace to collect rainwater as a backup.
6.Get a radio or transistor from somewhere if you don’t have one. Radio stations are the last to shut down services and the first to resume them.
What happened
There was continuous (but never torrential) rainfall from the evening of the 11th, 24 hours before the scheduled landfall. Winds were normal monsoon ones and only picked up speed on 12th morning at 10 am, as when the electricity was cut off. Winds intensified after 5pm and were continuous after that with rain no longer permanent. I checked for leaks in the windows and then settled down with a book.
I slept at around 1 am in the night. From 5 pm till around midnight, the situation had stayed the same, with strong winds and interspersed rain. The winds had started to pick up at midnight, and were still howling (about 100-120 kmph) when yawns overcame me. I woke at around 9 o clock in the morning, and there was devastation all a8round….
13th October: The mornong after
I’m kidding. Nothing had happened. No tree had uprooted anywhere near my house. Not even a branch had broken, only the dry twigs. The weather in the morning had reverted back to normal monsoon type with sporadic rainfall accompanied by a sudden gust of wind once in a while. It had been announced that it would be safe to venture out of the houses only after noon, but a friend of mine from the neighbourhood turned up at around 10 0 clock on his bike and announced he was going to the market to see if he could get some groceries. I asked the same of my mother (“Get 2 kilos of potatoes.”) and accompanied him there. Not only were most of the shops selling essential items open, but bizarrely, there had been no increase in any prices with potatoes 20 rupees a kilo and onions 60. We got what we needed and returned .My friend told me that he had been up throughout the night (he had to do something to his aquarium every hour which electricity usually does or else the fishes would die) and the high winds that had started at 1 o clock had continued for a couple of hours before calming down. He dropped me off and I spent some time reading the newspaper (yes, even the newspaper of the same day had been delivered in the morning).
Mobile services resumed at around 2 pm, and electricity was restored in the late afternoon. I met up with another friend and we had a couple of rounds of snooker followed by some evening snacks. He lives on the 8th floor and he told me the wind intensity during the night was such that he had felt a part of his building might collapse or get carried off, and the condition there was still pretty bad with the wind rattling the windows and water entering the apartment every time it rained (for reference, me and my friend in the neighbourhood live in 1 and 3 storied houses).
The weather continued to be bad with intermittent showers, but the winds had gone down completely by the time night had arrived. I reflected on the panic that had spread when the “cyclone” had been declared, and figured out it was mostly on account of people’s memories of the 1999 super cyclone. And there was also the domino effect that when you see your friend or neighbour getting prepared for emergencies and obtaining rations for 4-5 days, you also tend to do the same. But it was all unfounded and the storm passed without much damage. Of course, it helps when you are 80 kilometres from the coast (as Cuttack is) since the cyclone is much dissipated when it reaches you. Let’s wait for the final story from the coastlines to see how much of the state is actually affected, although going by the stories of evacuations from the coastal towns (50% the population of Paradwip is supposedly in Cuttack), there seems to be nothing much of concern. The govt has done a good job, being thoroughly prepared (over-prepared I would say, and hyped this beyond measure to grab eyeballs), and all essential services are back. Only broadband internet connections remain absent and internet access is via smartphones only. Tomorrow is expected to be like any other day.
Signing off.
13th October 2013. 9:00 pm.
