21 years since Super Cyclone, residents of Odisha’s coastal villages remain scarred
KENDRAPADA: Life changed completely for the elderly Parbati Kisku around this time of the year, 21 years ago. This resident of the seaside village of Panikia, under Mahakalapada block of Kendrapada district, was among those who lost everything to the Super Cyclone on October 29, 1999. Now 80, she lost her husband, two daughters, a son and her daughter-in-law to the wrath of the storm, the likes of which have never been seen in the state since.
“The tidal waves entered our village and swept away my family. I survived as I took shelter in the only two-storey pucca house in the village. Now, our village has two cyclone shelters, concrete roads and pucca houses,” recalled Parbati, adding that after the devastation, she adopted an orphaned boy called Chandu Tudu in 2000. “He died of cancer last year, leaving behind his widow and two daughters,” said Parbati while sitting in her mud-walled thatched house. The sea frightens Parbati but she refuses to leave her coastal village. “I had never imagined that something like this could happen to me. The Super Cyclone made us aware that our village is not safe, but we have no option. We eke our a livelihood by fishing in the nearby creeks,” she explained.
Mantu Maiti of Suniti village in the same district had gone to Nalabhedi with his son Subash (19) when the Super Cyclone hit Earasama block in Jagatsinghpur that day. They were never found. Parul, Mantu’s widow, has been suffering his absence for the past 21 years. “I still can’t sleep. I keep thinking that another cyclone is going to come. The authorities are yet to give me compensation money,” said Parul (72).