Odisha’s Trysts With Tropical Storms Since 1999 Super Cyclone; The Hits & Misses

Bhubaneswar:  Cyclones and Odisha go back a long way. The two are somewhat synonymous and the state is now bracing to face the possible cyclonic storm ‘Dana’, brewing in the Bay of Bengal. The season’s first tropical cyclone is likely to shape by October 23 and reach Odisha-West Bengal coasts by October 24.

In the last 11 years, three cyclones that wreaked havoc along Odisha coast beginning with Phailin in 2013, Hudhud in 2014 and Titli in 2018, all in the months of October. Cyclonic storms in October of 1967 and 1971 had badly battered the state with the latter reportedly causing over 10,000 deaths after hitting hit Jagatsinghpur on October 29. But 1999 Super Cyclone remains etched in living memory as the most intense October cyclone in the history of the Bay of Bengal. Heavy rain accompanied by wind blowing in excess of 250 kmph pummelled Paradip and the neighbouring areas during the landfall around noon on October 29.  An estimated over 10,000 died (the government figure subsequently underwent a downward revision as thousands of people who lived along the coast in worst-hit Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts were not part of official records); lakhs of cattle and sheep perished; millions were rendered shelterless (the official count was 1.9 million houses) and property worth thousands of crores was damaged.

Also Read: Super Cyclone Of October 29, 1999: When Odisha’s Socio-Political Course Underwent A Sea-Change

Cyclone Yash was the last to hit Odisha. The ‘Very Severe Cyclonic Storm’ battered the northern coastline of Odisha with powerful winds and rains as it made landfall at Bahanaga block in Balasore with a sustained wind speed of 130 to 140 kmph gusting up to 155 kmph on May 26, 2021, leaving behind a trail of devastation, flattening kuchha houses, uprooting trees and electric poles, and causing rivers to swell.

With a recorded wind speed of 277 kmph, Cyclone Mocha hit the coastlines of Bangladesh and Myanmar after intensifying into the equivalent of a category-five storm on May 14, 2023, even as Odisha identified vulnerable areas and put disaster response teams on high alert.

Cyclone ‘Sitrang’, which made landfall along the Chittagong-Barisal coast around 9 pm October 24, was the second storm after Cyclone Asani, which crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast between Machilipatnam and Narsapur from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm as a deep depression with a wind speed of 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph, to skirt the Odisha coast in 2022.

December 2021 saw Cyclone Jawad fizzling out but coastal Odisha experienced heavy to moderate rain under its influence. The cyclonic storm weakened into a deep depression by the time it reached Puri on December 5.

Cyclone Gulab, which made landfall in Srikakulam district in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh on September 26, 2021, did not have much impact on Odisha with road connectivity getting partially affected, due to landslides and uprooting of trees at some places in Gajapati, Koraput and Malkangiri districts. The remnants of Cyclone Gulab formed into Cyclone Shaheen, which  hit the Omani coast on October 2, 2021, in a unique weather phenomenon.

2020 saw Cyclone Amphan, which struck the Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on May 20, causing large-scale damage in the coastal and northern districts of Odisha, including Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Balasore and parts of Mayurbhanj. It was the first pre-monsoon super cyclone of this century that emerged from the Bay of Bengal.

Cyclone Fani paralysed the state after it made landfall in Puri on May 3, 2019, with a wind speed of 175 kmph. The strongest storm to hit India in five years battered Odisha causing extensive damage in Puri and many others parts of the eastern state. It the longest life span among tropical cyclones observed in the Bay of Bengal.

Also Read: IMD Boss Mrutyunjay Mohapatra’s ‘Stormy’ Story: From Cyclone Victim To Master Mateorologist

Director of the Centre for Environment and Climate (CEC) Sarat Sahu had then said that the peculiarity of this strong cyclonic storm was the persistence of its intensity till it crossed the coast, not weakening even on landfall after crossing the coast close to Brahmagiri in Puri district and high temperatures in the region, though it moved parallel along the east coast from Tamil Nadu to Odisha.  The storm surge height, as reported by Satapada residents, was about 10ft, while the wind speed was over 200 km per hour

Heavy rain and high-velocity winds were triggered by Cyclone ‘Bulbul’, which made landfall at Sagar Islands in the Sunderbans area of West Bengal on November 9, 2019, with wind speed crossing over 100 kmph. Odisha suffered agricultural damage, with 490,000 acres worth of crops destroyed state-wide.

Cyclone Titli in 2018 left authorities in shock, as the weather system unexpectedly changed its course and entered Gajapati district, where no major preparations were made to deal with the calamity, while crossing south Odisha-north Andhra Pradesh coasts and making landfall near Palasa in Srikakulam district.

In 2016, Cyclone Kyant had also spared Odisha.

The year 2013 saw Cyclone Phailin bringing in its wake torrential rains and wind speeds of over 200 kmph in the state. It made landfall near Gopalpur coast of Ganjam on October 12.

A total of 73 cyclonic storms and 23 severe cyclonic storms made landfall in Odisha between 1891 and 2021. Balasore has been the site of landfall for 28 cyclones followed by Puri and Jagatsinghpur (20 each), Ganjam (13) Kendrapada (11) and Bhadrak (9) districts, Pratap Kumar Mohanty, professor, marine science, Berhampur University, was quoted as saying by Down to Earth.