Cyclone Fani touched Puri coast of Odisha on 3rd May 2019 at 8 am. Initially the speed of wind was 180 to 200 km per hour for about half an hour and then slowly its speed increased to 280 to 330 km per hour destroying houses all over inside Puri town. Power supply cut on 3rd of May 2019 at 7 am when at the initial period of cyclone Fani.
Then, all the electricity poles and wires uprooted from the base. All the cable lines cut and fly out anywhere. Asbestos of houses fly anywhere and many people become homeless. The speed of wind touched to 330 km per hour and at Puri we experienced the presence of small seconds of earthquakes but to our utter surprise seismometer not detect it at all.
It was for two day since the advent of cyclone Fani, where we the natives of Puri town became homeless, foodless, no electricity, no water and even the help from government agencies are almost no.
5th May 2019, two days after advent of Cyclone Fani:
No rain is there. Slowly, the heat of sun making difficult to live. No electricity and scarcity of water everywhere. The summer is out again. We were waiting for electricity at Puri but there was no official word on it. Everywhere there is confusions. We begin to read newspaper as while during morning walk, the paper hawkers used to ask us while purchasing of daily news paper, when will the help from government organisation come.
The general election as well as election for assembly completed. People were thinking that if at all election not complete then the politicians will help at their might to save people but that is not the case this time. The water stock at overhead tank was slowly reducing and this means that within shortest possible of time we will find the absolute state of water scarcity.
We have had borewell with overhead tank and the water comes through electric motor and for this the most necessity fact was to have electricity at ours own perusal. We do not have alternate water supply for us. Our tubewell was out of order and this means within some time we will find difficulties in getting water.
Cyclone Fani falls with its all might at 10.30 am with absolute superfast speed of 330 km per hour and during 11 am two earthquakes came and that shook the walls of ours home and we were afraid as if at any point of time tsunami will come to destroy the age-old civilisation of Puri town.
Devastation of Cyclone Fani
Cyclone Fani with earthquakes:
During that time at home my younger sister with his four year old son and my parents and myself at home and for the first time in my life I feel the pain of incoming of death and destruction and within shortest span the wind tore away ours doors and windows and that augments fear to multiple times.
Thankfully earthquake comes for few seconds otherwise entire ancient Puri town will submerged into sea water for years to come. We faced losses due to Cyclone Fani as it uprooted terrace asbestos and two asbestos of smaller rooms. After Cyclone Fani gone we searched for these broken asbestos but it flies distant and we do not find any trace of it at all.
For few seconds wind shook asbestos of terrace steps and then it flies like kites within few seconds. large coconut trees uprooted from its base and it broke the large boundary at the back side of ours house at Puri town. The severe of Cyclone Fani was such that we hardly knew the fierce of it as we knew after the cyclone Fani goes over and peace and calmness comes back.
During these absolute difficult times ours cooking was almost stopped and only cooking for my sister and his four year old son was there. My sister undergone big surgery and during recuperation time it is important for her to eat home-cooked food and that is why compulsory home cooking for both mother and child.
The fear during that time was that we have two gas cylinders but one is empty and during refill time the cyclone Fani came and this means we were left with only one half was of full gas cylinder and for my sister home-cooked food is a sure as she had to eat home-cooked food.
It was difficult times considering the hardships we were at and the imminent shortages of water, no electricity and the presence of patience and the small kid was adding miseriese to it. During this time, as there was no clear-cut news about the when will the power restoration and the generators man hiring generator for one hour and asking lump sum of 1000 rupees from people.
No government was there to help us in this very difficult times. As we were realising the level of water at overhead tank was fast reducing and for this daddy hired the generators and it connected to home line and then we started the motor to load water on overhead tank. Within ten minutes the motor stopped as the generator operator came with a light-weight generator and that means it will not make water to move to overhead tank.
In this way this experiment with generator proved to be mea flop show. Even after it stopped working the operator demanded money and then settled with 400 rupees and this means that in the absence of government run agencies, the private operators were demanding money even during such catastrophic situation where even banks after 20 days are not functioning in its normalcy.
