Mandal in front of his thatched house at Dasmatha in Erasama. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Oct. 16: Balai Mandal had lost 11 of his family members in the 1999 supercyclone. Fourteen years later, the fishermen encountered Phailin with combative spirit.

The resident of Dasamatha village under Erasama block had shifted to safety hours before the cyclone struck on the night of October 12. Mandal’s wife and two sons had also followed him to the government shelter even before they were asked to leave their home.

“I am now 29 and happily settled. I have seen the dance of death from handshaking distance. All my near ones had lost their lives right before my eyes. I know how horrific a cyclone could become. So, this time I had prepared myself to combat the cyclone,” Mandal said.

Not ready to leave anything to chance, Mandal said: “Before government officials asked us to leave our homes, I took my wife and two teenage sons to the nearby cyclone shelter on the morning of October 12. I had with me some flattened rice, molasses, a few packets of biscuits and a bucket of drinking water. A transistor radio gave me company and kept me informed about the progress of the impending storm. By evening, the shelter was packed beyond capacity. All of my fellow villagers had moved in by then. The entire village was deserted. Only after the gusty winds fell weak, I returned home.”

The sense of urgency and preparedness that the people living in the seaside pockets of Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara showed was because of the bitter lesson learnt in the aftermath of the 1999 supercyclone. There has been no report of human casualty this time even though Phailin struck at over 200kmph. Preparedness of the residents in vulnerable areas also reduced the scale of devastation of property.

In contrast, the 1999 supercyclone had claimed 9,885 lives across the state. In Jagatsinghpur district, 8,119 deaths had taken place. The largest number of casualties was reported from the district’s Erasama block, where more than 6,500 people had perished.

Echoing Mandal, Prasanta Haldar of Dahibar village of Jagatsinghpur district said: “Fourteen years ago, the supercyclone had taken away everything from me. I survived the 1999 tragedy, but my family members perished because they had ignored the forecast. But this time, I moved to the safe shelter along with a few villagers.”

Panachana Mirdha, 44, a fisherman of Ambiki village, had lost six family members to the 1999 supercyclone. This time, he preferred the safety of cyclone shelter. Mirdha’s village, which had to bear the loss of 2,000 lives in 1999, did not lose a single villager to Phailin.

“We are aware about the ferocity and brute force of the sea and the gale. So, none were ready to take any chance. We have survived. There is no loss of human life and property,” said Sashmita Mohanty, former sarpanch of Satabhaya gram panchayat.

However, there were some who did not show the urgency to leave their homes. This was where the role of the administration played a crucial role.

“Preparedness had gripped the seaside villages. However, in some pockets of the vulnerable block, the villagers were taking time to shift. Therefore, we were forced to evacuate them,” said Erasama tehsildar Sarat Kumar Purohit.