This Article is From Oct 11, 2014

How a One-room House on Odisha Coast is Bracing for Cyclone Hudhud

(Alok Pandey is a chief correspondent with NDTV)

In Noa Golabanda village, bang on the coast in Odisha's Ganjam district, there are 250 fishing boats, 1,008 households and about 6,000 people.

For Cyclone Hudhud, they are bracing for the worst but say it can't be worse than Cyclone Phailin perhaps, the super cyclone that made a landfall close to this village exactly the same time last year. This time, Hudhud's expected landfall is about a few 100 kilometres away in Andhra Pradesh

Yet, Girish, a 45-year-old fisherman, and his 70-year-old mother Shymala, who live in a one-room house battered by Phailin, say they will evacuate if the government asks them to.

In their home, Shyamala shows us the essentials she has stocked up in case they need to move. A sack of rice, some rice flakes, jaggery and some clothes plus important documents.

Girish says, "My mother does not want to move but I have convinced her to in case the need arises".

A few kilometres away, at the circuit house in Gopalpur, Ganjam's young collector Prem Kumar Chaudhary, who was assistant collector here when Cyclone Phailin hit, patiently explains why an evacuation has not been ordered yet.

Chaudhary says, "All cyclone shelters are just 500 metres to one kilometres away from the villages. So if the rain gets very heavy, we can always evacuate quickly, say within an hour. If we go now, people will ask us why we are interfering unnecessarily "

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this blogare the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible for theaccuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on thisblog. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts oropinions appearing on the blog  do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTVdoes not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.


.