October 29th - 1999, a day to remember in our history of natural disasters

Sometimes, our lives are so busy that we tend to forget about certain dates in history when devastating things happened.  Its not that we forget, its just we are so pre-occupied with our own lives that these events just simply vanish into the deep depths of our memory.

Early on October 29th, 1999, a super-cyclone swept out of the Bay of Bengal and devastated the Orissa   State Coastal region.  With some of the strongest winds ever recorded in the area ranging from up to 161 miles per hour (259 km/h) and storm surges up to 20 feet (6 m), Tropical Cyclone 05B was one of the worst storms in India's history.

Tropical Cyclone 05B slammed into the Orissa coast slightly north of the cities of Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack at about 5.00 am on October 29.  The Cyclone raveged for nearly 24 hours.  Over 1,500 villages were destroyed and more than 2 million people were left homeless and the death toll was over 9,900.  The Orissa state economy is based on agricultural industry that accounts for nearly 80 percent of the populations livelihoods and provides over half of the states income.  The massive tidal surge from Tropical Cycle 05B reached approximately 9 miles (14.5 km) inland, destroying some 800,000 acres of crops and polluting soils with salt and debris in the process.  The flooding caused massive livestock losses, vital to many families in the area.

The lack of fresh water, salvageable food, and the looming health threats from contamination and rotting corpses in the days after the cyclone hit led to hundreds more deaths by dehydration, starvation, and the spread of disease.  Anger over the slow and inadequate government response to the crisis let to looting and riots among the remaining survivors.

Surviving each type of natural disaster requires a different strategy.  Many disasters are difficult, if not impossible, to predict, and even so there may not be much opportunity to act.  Fate and chance play a very big role in determining the final outcome.  There is, however, a need for all nations to come together and assist in urgent and quick responses to such crisis to help save as many people as possible. This, again, is our ethical duty as a human species!