A day after Cyclone Fani devastated Puri, an excited group of 40 tourists alight from a yellow bus in front of the Malatipatpur bus station.
A day after Cyclone Fani devastated Puri, an excited group of 40 tourists alight from a yellow bus in front of the Malatipatpur bus station. A huge hoarding with the words “Welcome to Puri” is missing half its letters. The bus station it itself missing its roof. But the travelers are here to have a darshan of Lord Jagannath.
“We had no idea about Fani, but we will return only after seeing Jagannath,” said Narasimha Rao, part of a group from Telengana’s Khammam district.
However, they prove to be the only cheerful faces one comes across in the city.
Outside the Collector’s Residence on VIP Road, a woman peers into the property – now missing a compound wall, half a roof and the rest of the view obscured by dozens of fallen trees. Kailasi Nayak says she is the daughter of one of the women working at “Babu’s” house. “Maa (mother) dropped everything and rushed here at 6 am. If the Collector has no place to live, how can he restore the city?” she said.
Premier hotels with glass facades are missing almost all panes. Tourist lodges, churches, the district headquarter hospital, shanties, middle-class homes, small shops, vendor carts, and shops made of tarpaulin strung on bamboo — all have sustained severe damages.
However, some dedicated officers like the Collector have not left the building since the extremely severe cyclonic storm made landfall Friday.
Avinash Sai, Assistant Commandant of the National Disater Response Force, is another such officer. He is stuck to his satellite phone since morning, darting in and out of government buildings as his men work to restore normalcy. “The first priority is roads. The trees have to be removed. Three teams are taking care of town roads as four other teams are clearing the road from Bhubaneswar to Puri,” he said.
District officials also add that they are happy the death count so far — 12 — is not large. “In Titli, we announced Mission Zero Casualty has been achieved immediately after the storm. Over the next two weeks, the death count rose to over 75. This time the government will be careful,” said a senior district official.
The official said the town is currently reeling from a lack of telecommunication, roads, power and water.
Badadanda — the approach road to the Jagannath Temple — perhaps for the first time in decades has no traffic policemen to guide vehicles around the temple. However, the temple itself seems to have weathered the storm largely unharmed, according to sources in the district administration and servitors working in the temple.
The corpulent figure of Narsimha Pujapanda sits by the metal barriers outside the Singhadwara (main gates). He is busy telling people they cannot enter for the day, until further instructions from the temple management. But he tells The Indian Express that normal activities have resumed inside.
He insists that the damages to the temple are minimal. “No storm can dare to harm the Supreme Lord of the Universe,” he said.
Not all are so lucky. Prakash Das, 51, is a labourer who lives in a one room house in Bira Harekrushnapur Bazar with eight other people. “If you have 10 rooms and two are damaged, then it is still okay. What about us? Our only shelter is gone,” he said.
“We had no idea about Fani, but we will return only after seeing Jagannath,” said Narasimha Rao, part of a group from Telengana’s Khammam district.
However, they prove to be the only cheerful faces one comes across in the city.
Outside the Collector’s Residence on VIP Road, a woman peers into the property – now missing a compound wall, half a roof and the rest of the view obscured by dozens of fallen trees. Kailasi Nayak says she is the daughter of one of the women working at “Babu’s” house. “Maa (mother) dropped everything and rushed here at 6 am. If the Collector has no place to live, how can he restore the city?” she said.
Premier hotels with glass facades are missing almost all panes. Tourist lodges, churches, the district headquarter hospital, shanties, middle-class homes, small shops, vendor carts, and shops made of tarpaulin strung on bamboo — all have sustained severe damages.
However, some dedicated officers like the Collector have not left the building since the extremely severe cyclonic storm made landfall Friday.
Avinash Sai, Assistant Commandant of the National Disater Response Force, is another such officer. He is stuck to his satellite phone since morning, darting in and out of government buildings as his men work to restore normalcy. “The first priority is roads. The trees have to be removed. Three teams are taking care of town roads as four other teams are clearing the road from Bhubaneswar to Puri,” he said.
District officials also add that they are happy the death count so far — 12 — is not large. “In Titli, we announced Mission Zero Casualty has been achieved immediately after the storm. Over the next two weeks, the death count rose to over 75. This time the government will be careful,” said a senior district official.
The official said the town is currently reeling from a lack of telecommunication, roads, power and water.
Badadanda — the approach road to the Jagannath Temple — perhaps for the first time in decades has no traffic policemen to guide vehicles around the temple. However, the temple itself seems to have weathered the storm largely unharmed, according to sources in the district administration and servitors working in the temple.
The corpulent figure of Narsimha Pujapanda sits by the metal barriers outside the Singhadwara (main gates). He is busy telling people they cannot enter for the day, until further instructions from the temple management. But he tells The Indian Express that normal activities have resumed inside.
He insists that the damages to the temple are minimal. “No storm can dare to harm the Supreme Lord of the Universe,” he said.
Not all are so lucky. Prakash Das, 51, is a labourer who lives in a one room house in Bira Harekrushnapur Bazar with eight other people. “If you have 10 rooms and two are damaged, then it is still okay. What about us? Our only shelter is gone,” he said.