Disaster Management Mitigation process applied during the Cyclone Fani. Looking the history of cyclone in Odisha and learning the patterns helps to reduce and implement the risk mitigation strategy.

1. Cyclone Fani –
Odisha 2019
Presented by – Sanjay Kumar Bhuyan
M.Tech - Project Management
Project Risk Management.

2. • What is a Disaster ?
Disasters are serious disruptions to the functioning of a community
that exceed its capacity to cope using its own resources. Disasters
can be caused by natural, man-made and technological hazards, as
well as various factors that influence the exposure and vulnerability
of a community.
• What is Disaster Management ?
Disaster management is a process of effectively preparing for and
responding to disasters. It involves strategically organizing resources
to lessen the harm that disasters cause. It also involves a systematic
approach to managing the responsibilities of disaster prevention,
preparedness, response, and recovery.

3. Understanding Risks in Disaster
Management
• Often, issues such as a poorly maintained levee system or other negligence can
worsen the outcome of a disaster. Such was the case when Super Cyclone
overwhelmed in 1999
• By addressing deferred infrastructure maintenance and other causal factors,
governments and organizations can often prevent, or at least reduce, the fallout of
disasters.
• Disaster management involves examining and managing causal factors. It requires
assessing the extent to which a community can withstand a disaster. Some
communities are more vulnerable than others. For example, poorer communities
have fewer resources to prepare themselves for a storm or bounce back from flood
damage.
• Disaster management also involves analyzing exposure to loss. For example,
homes built below sea level may face greater exposure to flooding if a cyclone
hits them.

4. Odisha and Cyclones
• Odisha is prone to three types of natural hazards such as
cyclones, earthquakes and Floods. Out of all these, major
problem of the state are the cyclonic storms with storm
surges inundating vast areas of land along the coastal areas.
• The coastline is about 450 km along towards the Bay of
Bengal which is about 18% of Indian Coastline but nearly
about 35% of cyclonic storms with hurricane winds have
crossed this stretch.
• Odisha has experienced cyclones in the year 1971,1973
1977,1981,1983,1984,1985,1987,1989,1999,2013,2014,
2019,2020.

6. Path of SuperCyclone-1999 Landfalls and Path of Occurence
Affected Region
by Supercyclone

7. Pre Disaster Management for Super Cyclone.
• In 1999, Odisha was one of the poorest state where more than half
of the population was BPL.
• The Disaster preparedness was very less, being poor state the
overall Disaster management, a state level in subject in India, gets
low priority in wake of more pressing needs of development.
• Due to this Impact of Supercyclone was shaken the whole state
where 12 districts of coastal areas experienced the devastation.
• About 275000 houses where destroyed, 1.67 millions people were
homeless and around 12000 people loss their life and animal
Fatality was about 2.5 millions.
• Paddy crops were affected around 1.35 million hectares of land
were destroyed.
• Nearly the electricity were cut for a month, no water supply in
urban areas.

8. Post Disaster Management for Super Cyclone
• Initially Relief were provided by the State Government by air
dropping of food packets to the marooned people. “Operation
Shahyata” carried a relief material to all affected areas.
• Compensation of 75000 Rs for dead people were given. A total of
Rs 21.03 crores from the State mitigation Fund and Rs. 38.41
crores from Prime Minister relief Fund was spent in different
districts.
• The United Nations in India instituted the UN house in
Bhubaneswar to provide assistance for restoring normalcy in
aftermath of the SuperCyclone.
• A group of NGO’s and volunteers were created Odisha Disaster
Management Mitigation Mission
• “Sneha Abhiyan” – A campaign of Love was a response to ensure
rehabilitation of most vulnerable among the survivors of Odisha
Super Cyclone.

11. Preparedness to Response and Immediate Relief Operations
• Upon receiving the early warnings from IMD, both national and state
machinery geared up to assess the level of preparedness for an effective
response after the landfall.
• Government of Odisha evacuated close to 1.55 million people towards
9,177 shelters including the 879 multipurpose cyclone/flood shelters and
other safe shelters like schools and public buildings.
• All fishing activities were suspended two days prior to the landfall. The
government organised massive awareness campaigns to inform people
about the basic cyclone dos and don’ts.
• Twenty Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) units, 335 Fire
Service units and 25 units of the National Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) were deployed in the coastal districts for search and rescue
operations.
• District and Block Emergency Operation Centres were activated 24×7
with deployment of senior government offi cials at the district level.
• To ensure safety, prior inspections of anganwadi centres (AWCs), food
stocks and essential items were carried out.

12. On 1 May 2019, Collectors of coastal and adjoining districts
were instructed to:
• Identify all vulnerable people and shift them to safe shelters
• Provide special care to shift the old, physically challenged,
women and children to shelters
• Ensure safety of residential schools, child care institutions,
old age homes and similar institutions
• Ensure availability of sufficient food stuff , drinking water
and essential medicines
• Organise cooked food through free kitchens, safe drinking
water, lighting, health and sanitation
• Evacuate livestock and domestic animals in vulnerable areas.
• Operationalise the DEOCs round the clock.

14. Response Measures in the Immediate Aftermath of the
Cyclone
• All families covered under Food Security in Puri and Khurda
received 50 kilograms (kg) of rice plus INR 2,000
(unconditional cash transfer). About 15,35,320 beneficiaries
were supported through this social protection scheme, helping
in early recovery at household level.
• In all the affected districts, 1month additional pension and
house building assistance was declared.
• A special package for street vendors, coconut growers and
poultry farmers was announced.
• The distribution of Chattua (dry, ready-to-eat food) packets and
eggs, two days prior to the cyclone, to the beneficiaries of the
anganwadi system as a preparedness measure, added to the
early recovery efforts.

15. Impact of Fani
• Cyclone Fani affected 18,388 villages, 51 towns and 159 blocks
across 14 districts: Puri, Khurda, Cuttack, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar,
Baleswar, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Nayagarh, Ganjam,
Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.
• Close to 1.65 crore people were thus directly aff ected by the
cyclone in both urban and rural areas.
• Apart from large scale loss of housing, livelihoods and ecology,
the cyclone disrupted critical services such as power and water
supply, communications and social sector services such as health
and education.
• The communication breakdown also impacted the disaster
management function of the Government of Odisha.
• Despite a very successful evacuation and prompt action by the
emergency management services in clearing of roads, the hardship
continued for too long.

16. Recovery Costs and Strategies
• The Government of Odisha’s response to the crisis, its evacuation of
at-risk people, and management of cyclone shelters has also gained it a
lot of national and international attention.
• The investments made by the Government of Odisha in disaster
management after the previous disasters have contributed to the
comparatively low mortality during cyclone Fani.
• Post-disaster recovery is a long-drawn-out and multi-dimensional
process.
• The low asset base coupled with the massive destruction of housing,
agriculture, small enterprises and livestock will translate to high levels of
rural distress.
• To ensure that affected communities recover quickly, OSDMA must
develop a recovery framework to monitor the progress and quality of
early recovery interventions to achieve its resilience building goals and
spread awareness as part of its engagement towards public
accountability.

17. The recovery strategy can adopt a three-pillar approach:
 Strengthen the robustness of the OSDMA in responding to
disasters. This should primarily be through:
• Expanding the Early Warning Dissemination System
• Strengthening the Communications network for Disaster
Management
• Setting up of a backup State Emergency Operations Centre
 Promote risk-informed development planning principles and
integrate DRR measures into sectorial development plans.
• Revision of District and Departmental Disaster Management Plans
• Prepare Multi Hazard Risk and Vulnerability Assessments at the
District and State level
 Reduce economic loss and impact of disasters by building resilience
among people, service delivery systems and critical infrastructure.
• Setup a Centre for Mitigation and Recovery within SIDM
• Promote the adoption of resilient infrastructure across all the sectors

18. Conclusions
• Cyclone Fani is an opportunity to rebuild assets and livelihoods,
improve government services, and build resilience at all levels.
Recovery should be organised as a distinct effort, targeting
people who are severely affected by Fani.
• At the same time, the government should upgrade public
buildings, services and infrastructure facilities so that they can
withstand future disasters.
• A sustained recovery effort will bring accelerated development
to Odisha.
• It will bring in more investment, skills and regulations which
create larger opportunities for civil society.
• Recovery should, therefore, be seen as a targeted effort for
building resilience, meeting the Sustainable Development
Goals, and improving the well-being of people.