Word: orissa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...October 1999, some 20,000 people died in a cyclone in Orissa. Entire villages were swept away, 2 million houses were destroyed, thousands of cattle were drowned. Tired and desperate survivors remained stranded on roofs and in trees for days. Politicians demanded rescue and relief, but in village after village journalists arrived first?and were greeted with outrage. As they pursued their stories, they were forced to hand out their personal supplies of biscuits and bottled water. One such journalist, Ruben Banerjee, the local correspondent of India Today magazine, has published The Orissa Tragedy (Books Today; 202 pages), an account...
...Unlike earthquakes or avalanches, a cyclone can be predicted. Meteorologists warned that a supercyclone was brewing in the Bay of Bengal three days before it hit. Giridhar Gamang, Chief Minister of Orissa, took unusual precautionary measures. According to Banerjee, he called in three powerful astrologers and kept a personal vigil as they appealed to the gods to deflect the storm. As frenzied winds snapped telecommunications and power lines, the pundits assured their boss he had little to fear. One said Gamang's stars would protect the state. Another predicted the cyclone would miraculously split into two, dodging Orissa. The third...