ORISSA SUPER CYCLONE
Orissa, the Super Cyclone which struck on 29th of Oct 1999.
The scenario at Orissa
| The areas of the Super Cyclone are Bhubaneshwar, Puri, Cuttack, Paradeep, and Jagatsinghpur Kendrapara. Approximately 200,000 household have been destroyed in Bhubaneshwar city. Silent Keys and carcasses were in large numbers 5 lakh coconut trees have been destroyed. 100% mud houses destroyed. 10% of the concrete houses damaged. Diseases have set in. | |
I was scanning on the band in the late afternoon and had qso with VU2POP, Pratap from Bangalore who was co-ordinating for Relief Operation requested me to join the relief operation in Orissa. I packed my HF Station with the Antenna and left for Bangalore in the night bus with VU2AJQ, Ashraf who joined me. Natraj. Action Aid, a Non Governmental Org. was the main sponsorer for the Relief Operation for the Hams and Doctors. Six Hams from Bangalore were already doing their job in Bhubaneshwar. Three hams, VU3NXA - Brig. Prem, VU3JAK - Javed and VU3GFD - Ahmed joined us. The plans for traveling by Train was changed we were booked by flight from Bangalore-Hyderabad-Bhubaneshwar. 12 Dr.'s from St. John Medical College, Bangalore accompanied us. We were loaded with 2 HF station , 2 Inverted Dipole Antenna, 3 VHF Handies with 4 UMS Antenna, Qtr Wave Antenna, 2 Cartoons of Medicine boxes. we reached hyderabad. Morning Flight Departure at 6.00 Am. But due to technical snap IA flight was delayed by 10 hrs. Later I had a contact with VU2RDQ, Rohit thru VHF-HF patch up. |
When we reached Bhubaneshwar at 17:30 IST. The aerial view of Bhubaneshwar was quite shocking with the trees showing the path of 'Super Cyclone' that traveled 240 kmph. The CYSD camp had put a Orissa Disaster Mitigation Mission, under which lots of Ngo co-ordinated like OXFAM, Action Aid, Care-India, Capart, Animal- care etc. Lots of relief materials were loaded in truck and distributed from the CYSD camp. We met the Bangalore Hams, VU2GUR-Guru, VU2VTM-Marcus, VU2COC- Venkatesh. The rest of them were mobile and VU2JHM had already set up a HF and VHF station with the doctors in Jambu. We met Mr. Ram from CYSD who was the only co-ordinator for Ham relief operation. We went for a briefing done by Dr. Mamta about the situation in Orissa who was co-ordinating with all the doctors. Our operation was to create a VHF network along with the Doctors for the Identification , Prevention and Reporting of the Disease like Diahorrea, Cholera, Measles, fever etc to name a few. Also other messages like requirement of Water Purifying Tables, Food Packets, Medicines, Polythene Bags, Identifying of unattended areas. |
There was one Sis. Stella Maria of St. Beteny convent School, who had already burnt bodies in thousands. we stayed for a night halt in Community Centre.
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Dr. Mamta took a Diahorrea patient to the nearby hospital and got medical help early in the morning. we started our journey to Bagadia Village and found that there were already 2 deaths from Diahorrea , the bodies were already burnt by the villagers and 4 cases of Diahorrea, were reported. Dr. Mamta gave immediate medication and also distributed Water purifying tablets to the patients and the villagers. |
We passed on the message immediately to the nearest nodal point for the requirement of Doc. to treat the patients in Bhagadia. A mobile van was already on its way with all the facilities. Dr. Mamta and VU3GFD stayed until the doctors arrived and we proceeded towards Mallipura. .The road to Mallipura is quite narrow, on our way we could see the trees totally uprooted, carcasses and human bodies in large no' lying on both the sides of Canals. There was an interesting point we had noticed that not a single death of dog was sighted a any given time. It was quite puzzling and the dogs may have had the inner sense about the CycloneWe stopped on a nearby village asking for the direction of Mallipura and inquired about the health situation in the village. There were number of cases of fever, cholera reported but some medical help was being made available to the nearest nodal points. On reaching Mallipura, the doctors were attending 200 patients/day and there was an immediate need of medicines, food packets, polythene bags and mineral water (Dr.). Lots of cases of Diahorrea, Fever were reported in and around the villages. It was decided to put up a permanent VHF base station at Mallipura for 4 days. We passed on the message to the Control Room in Bhubaneshwar and after some time the truck full load of relief material was on its way to Mallipura. |
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We started for Ersamma for the next nodal point and look for the ODDM team of Doctors and volunteers for their requirements. Ersamma was being given lot of attention by the media people, NGO and also the armies. There were some worst affected places nearby which was not concentrated. The common sight in these areas were carcasses and the dogs devouring the dead bodies, trees uprooted, mud houses destroyed. We went further 8 kms interior from Ersamma where the army concentrated by boats. There were 18-20 villages which was accessible only by air or by boats. VU3NXA, Brig Prem knew one of the Army Capt. Reddy, requested to coordinate & come along to those worst affected areas the next day. We started our journey to Jambu, where VU2JHM, Ajoy was stationed with the doctors for a night halt.. The propagation from Jambu sometimes changed a lot and the VHF band was quite dead for a contact with Bhubaneshwar. Ajoy was not heard for a one and half day. Once we reached to near to the place we could get Ajoy and got the direction for Jambu. There was no power in the village and was total blackout. The people had make temporary huts on the roadside for the shelter. |
| We started early in the morning to reach Ersamma. The Anand Margis and RSS Volunteers carrying the dead bodies and burning them in pile up. The army were busy unloading the boats from the truck and in no time we started by 9:00 Am. There were four boats, two for the nearest villages and the other two boats were used for long distance , VU3NXA and Capt. Reddy were in one boat and myself and VU3SXE , Sandeep were in another boat. |  |
| We were to go to the far off villages. All the boats carried food packets, medicines etc. we had an Army doctor in our boat. While on the way we could dead bodies in large numbers floating and washes ashore. There were 120-125 bodies sighted scattered all over places. There were bodies in large numbers inside the paddy fields which had a span of 5-6 kms. We queried the armies whether this was a lake of some sort, to our surprise we came to know that this area had a narrow road and canals on each side, it was flooded with water and gave an impression of river. The road were flooded with water and the villages were like small islands. It was really shocking to what extent the aftermath of Super Cyclone had created. The people were in mental shock, and each and every families were mourning the deaths of their beloved ones. The villagers were living among the deads, drinking the contaminated water, bathing and washing clothes. But no villager burnt the dead bodies to reduce the outbreak of diseases. After 2 hrs we reached a village called Kankan, where only relief materials was given before 5 days by choppers throwing food packets. Cases of Diahorrea, fever were noticed, the army doctor gave them some medication and advised them to go to Ersamma by local boats to the hospital for further treatments. We distributed the food packets and medicines to the villagers. | |
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At one point of time we were providing communication to the armies to the other boat which had gone towards Padampur. There was a message given by VU3NXA, Brig. Prem "There is no sign of Humans living in Padampur Village and it looked like a Ghost village and asked us inquire to the people of Kankan village. They informed us that since 2 to 3 days there was no soul sighted. After more inquiries we came to know that the people of Padampur had moved to the other end of the village. |
| But the deaths were in large numbers in these areas, Approx. 7000 above were silent keys alone in these villages. Kankan village had a casualty of about 725 deaths, only hundred are alive with terror of Cyclone. The other boat came back with relief materials with the them and decided to unload the remaining to this village. We went towards Bhagadi village which was also nearby, distributed food packets and medicines. Cases of fever and Diahorrea was reported. All these village were 100 % destroyed as these consisted of only mud houses. We got a message from VU3GFD that truck loaded with material was again looted on its way to Mallipura. This was the second incident that happened enroute Mallipura. It was already late noon, we started our journey back, on our way we stopped at Ambiki Village and distributed the remaining relief material to them and went interior into the village. |
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We met the RSS team of Doctors and volunteers who were already there. This particular village had more than 1500 deaths, 90% trees uprooted and 99 % houses destroyed except for a concrete school which had survived the Cyclone and was made a temporary hospital. After inquiring about the situation, we started back as it was getting dark. All the relief materials were distributed accordingly to the needed villages. The other two boats had already made 2 trips to the nearby villages. |
| We reached back and it was breathtaking
experience that we had. The aftermath of the Super
Cyclone was very crucial with the people's sufferings and
mental shock. For the last three days we were surviving
only with the biscuits and mineral water except for a
small cup of tea in the village Dhabas. VU2AJQ had put up the station in Mallipura, VU3JAK, Javed was in Kantapara and other four hams were mobile in the nodal areas. I had put up my HF 757 GX as the Base station in Bhubaneshwar. Also had an eyeball with VU2LO, Lokesh from Orissa who was shifting his residence to Delhi. Lokesh gave us lot of support like batteries, connectors etc. VU2JHM, Ajoy had closed down the station at Jambu along with the doctors, met an eyeball with VU3RSB, Sarath at Chief Ministers residence, VU2LIC at Chief Minister's Office. There were number of VHF traffic of cases reporting from different places of Diahorrea, Measles, Fever and other additional requirements of the base stations. It was indeed a breathtaking experience and lots of lessons learnt from the Relief Operation. |
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Equipements |
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| HF Ft -757 Gx | VU3DMP, Chets, Mangalore |
| Ft-747 | Indian Institute of Hams, Bangalore |
| Atlas At - 10 | VU2AJQ. Ashraf, Kasargod |
| Reckall 40 Mtrs | VU2JHM, Ajoy, Bangalore |
| VHF FT - 411E | VU3JAK(Javed), VU3GFD(Ahmed), VU3SXE(Sandeep) VU3NOI(Suresh Vohra), VU2JHM(Ajoy), VU3NXA(Prem) VU2GUR(Guru) |
| 4 no's VHF UMS Antenna | 4 no's VHF Directional - 1 no. J Pole - 1 no. Qtr Wave - 2 no's Ground Plane, Inverted Dipole Antenna for HF |
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