A school-cum-cyclone shelter at Samantaraypur village in Jagatsinghpur district. Telegraph picture

Paradip/Jajpur, Oct. 2: Ramananda Barik, along with his family members, had to rush to the roof of his house at Samantaraypur village near Paradip as the area was swamped by floodwater.

The 65-year-old could have moved the sprawling multipurpose cyclone shelter that had come up at the village in the aftermath of the 1999 super cyclone. But, Barik preferred the safety of his pucca building built in the post-cyclone period.

“The shelter itself had been swamped by water. Moreover, it had no food stock. Therefore, we decided to stay on the roof of our house,” said Barik.

Cyclone shelters in almost all the flood-hit districts remained by and large unused. “Built in a low-lying area, the cyclone shelter at our village lay submerged. It was difficult to reach there amid the swirling floodwaters,” said Shankrsan Nayak of Patalipanka village.

“Though we knew that staying at the cyclone shelter was safe, still we did not move there. It was ill-maintained,” said Gokuli Charan Parija, a resident of the flood-affected Antei village.

As many as 388 cyclone shelters were built after the 1999 super cyclone in Jagatsinghpur. While Kendrapara has 328 multipurpose cyclone shelters, Jajpur houses 255 such houses. The state has a total of 10,042 cyclone shelters.

The buildings were funded by the MPLAD fund, the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, the chief minister’s relief fund and the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Moreover, scores of voluntary agencies, corporate sectors and public sector undertakings had funded such projects. The buildings were designed to withstand wind speed of up to 300kmph and moderate earthquakes. Its plinth area stands above the High Flood line (HFL), so that it can resist storm surges up to the first-floor level.

However, the current flood brought under focus the erroneous site selection of such shelters. To add to this, non-maintenance of these buildings turned away many flood victims. “The Orissa State Disaster Management Authority’s attention was drawn towards the urgent repair of the cyclone shelters. It had even sanctioned Rs 19.90 lakh for the purpose. But, the maintenance work is yet to be undertaken,” said Bibhuda Kumar Mohanty, district emergency officer of Jagatsinghpur.

“Some of the cyclone shelters at Mahakalpada and Patkura remained cut off from the village because of their location in the low-lying areas. We are also sending a proposal to the disaster management authority for repair work of the cyclone shelters,” said Rudra Narayan Mohanty, district emergency officer of Kendrapara.

The shelters failed to provide refuge to people in Jajpur as most of the buildings got marooned.

“On Wednesday night, when floodwater of the Baitarani and its tributaries entered our village, we found the cyclone shelter under water. We have urged the government to order an inquiry into the construction of such shelters,” said Arjuna Maharana of Kainya village of Dasarathapur block in the district.