Tidal waves leave families homeless in Balasore

BHUBANESWAR :  Ramachandra Bhuyan (57) and his wife of Parikhi village in Balasore Sadar block took shelter at the village school along with 120 others since Tuesday noon, leaving behind their five children at a neighbour’s house hours before cyclone Yaas hit the coast.

The storm surge has destroyed the couple’s thatched house, their belongings and money that they had saved for their daughters’ marriages. Bhuyan cannot return home as his village is still surrounded by seawater. The coastal region of Balasore may have escaped the wind fury, but the cyclone-induced tidal surge has left behind a trail of destruction in at least 84 villages of six blocks.  

“I have never seen a tidal surge at such a height in my lifetime. I was confident that the seawater would not enter my house. But the unexpected happened. I have lost my house, belongings and savings. The ready to harvest paddy crop in around one acre has also gone under the seawater,” said Bhuyan. He alleged that his appeal to the local leaders and administration to get a pucca house has been turned down several times earlier. “I would have been in my house had it been built in concrete,” he added. 

Nearly 50 families in Jungle gheri area in Parikhi panchayat are under waist-deep water for the last two days. While people have lost stocked paddy and household articles as the saline water entered their houses, standing paddy and vegetable crops in hundreds of acre have been destroyed. No life was lost as they were taken to cyclone shelters much before the landfall.

Many of the cyclone victims are waiting to return home from their place of refuge. At some places, seawater has started receding following the full-moon day. But many of the houses have been reduced to heaps of mud. The district administration has started distributing relief to the affected villagers on a war-footing. The damage assessment is also underway. 

Principal Secretary of Sports and Tourism Vishal Kumar Dev, who has been assigned Balasore for supervision of relief and restoration works, said the tidal surge of such a magnitude in the district was witnessed for the first time in the last over five decades.    

“Several marine embankments and approach roads have been breached. Many houses and shops in the seaside villages have been damaged and crops destroyed. Mostly farmers and fishermen have been affected. The complete assessment is underway,” Dev added. He visited several affected villages in Sadar and Remuna blocks on Thursday.