Hurricane Ian: What Odisha can teach Florida in handling tropical cyclones

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The state’s effective handling of a cyclone has earned praise from the United Nations. Calling the state’s capability of saving lives with its “able disaster management skill” a “landmark success story”, the UN has recognised Odisha as a “model for disaster management programmes globally”. Similarly, the state’s disaster mitigation capability has also been lauded by the World Bank.

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The OSDMA, the first ever disaster management authority in India and perhaps the first of its kind body in the world given its scale of operations, was established even before National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was constituted in 2001 and much before the Disaster Management Act was passed by the Government of India in 2005.

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During 2021 Cyclone Yaas, the latest among the cyclones to hit Odisha, the state was facing two-fold challenges because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Odisha ably executed both the evacuation exercise and the Covid management during the cyclone.

Not even a single injury was reported during the evacuation exercise. Similarly, no Covid-designated hospital in cyclone-affected districts reported any untoward incident as adequate drugs, injections and oxygen were stocked.