leasons learnt from cyclone phailin

Lessons learnt from cyclone phailin :- The earth has been affected by the natural hazards over a long time as man emerged into the picture that the natural occurrences were becoming disaster, together with being documented in various ways providing a warning for the future generation. Nature is our wise old teacher, if we are willing to observe, listen and learn both in happier times and in our responses to the powerful forces of nature that have the capacity to destroy us, there are lessons to be learnt. Two strong lessons emerge from India’s response to cyclone Phailin — when there is a will to do something, India has the competence, capability and resources. As meteorologists warned of a monster storm ploughing towards India’s east coast, the country’s disaster preparedness teams snapped into action, pre-positioning emergency response teams and supplies, and evacuating nearly a million people – ultimately saving countless lives. The impressive show of disaster preparedness is thanks in large part to the lessons learnt after a powerful cyclone hit the country and killed 10,000 people in 1999, and the plans implemented in the years since. The low loss of life, following the strongest storm ever measured in the Bay of Bengal, would almost certainly not have been possible without learning lessons from previous cyclones and tsunamis that have hit this coastline.Credit is due to those who have been involved in efforts to reduce the scale of vulnerability to disasters across India. Cyclone Phailin, India’s fiercest storm in 14 years, smashed into the coastline of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states, flooded swathes of farmland and ripped apart tens of thousands of mud-and-thatch homes ,but surprisingly only 38 people have been reported dead. Early warnings which started five days before the storm’s arrival, the prepositioning of food rations and packaged drinking water in shelters, and the orderly and