Cyclone Phailin Leaves Debris And Relatively Few Casualties

By Bill Chappell

Published October 13, 2013 at 10:32 AM CDT

1 of 9 — A woman returns to the cyclone-hit Arjipalli village on the Bay of Bengal coast in Orissa state, India, on Sunday. The state's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says that a full recovery will be a "big challenge."

A woman returns to the cyclone-hit Arjipalli village on the Bay of Bengal coast in Orissa state, India, on Sunday. The state's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says that a full recovery will be a "big challenge."

2 of 9 — A family crosses a flooded road as they return to their village near Gopalpur, Orissa state.

A family crosses a flooded road as they return to their village near Gopalpur, Orissa state.

3 of 9 — A displaced Indian man carries his children at Sonupur village, outside Gopalpur on Sunday.

A displaced Indian man carries his children at Sonupur village, outside Gopalpur on Sunday.

4 of 9 — People try to remove an electric pole that fell down in Arjipalli village. Mass evacuations spared India the widespread deaths many had feared from a powerful cyclone that roared ashore over the weekend.

People try to remove an electric pole that fell down in Arjipalli village. Mass evacuations spared India the widespread deaths many had feared from a powerful cyclone that roared ashore over the weekend.

5 of 9 — An Indian woman carries empty water pots at the fisherman's colony in Gopalpur. Cyclone Phailin left a trail of destruction along India's east coast, but a large evacuation helped minimize casualties.

An Indian woman carries empty water pots at the fisherman's colony in Gopalpur. Cyclone Phailin left a trail of destruction along India's east coast, but a large evacuation helped minimize casualties.

6 of 9 — A municipal workers cuts an uprooted tree to clear a main highway in Berhampur. The immense and powerful cyclone that lashed the Indian coast forced nearly 1 million people to evacuate from the coast.

A municipal workers cuts an uprooted tree to clear a main highway in Berhampur. The immense and powerful cyclone that lashed the Indian coast forced nearly 1 million people to evacuate from the coast.

7 of 9 — A woman rests near her damaged house after returning to the cyclone-hit Podampeta village on the Bay of Bengal coast.

A woman rests near her damaged house after returning to the cyclone-hit Podampeta village on the Bay of Bengal coast.

8 of 9 — Residents walk through floodwaters Sunday near where Phailin made landfall in Gopalpur a day earlier. Phailin has been blamed for 17 deaths.

Residents walk through floodwaters Sunday near where Phailin made landfall in Gopalpur a day earlier. Phailin has been blamed for 17 deaths.

9 of 9 — A man rides a bicycle past an uprooted tree in Gopalpur.

A man rides a bicycle past an uprooted tree in Gopalpur.

Indian officials are reporting far fewer casualties than had been feared when the large and powerful cyclone Phailin struck the country's east coast Saturday. But the storm, which forced the evacuation of nearly 1 million people, has left flooding and destruction in its path.

One day after the storm struck the states of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh with winds of at least 125 mph, crews are working to clear fallen trees off roads and to open railway lines. And officials were voicing relief that the cyclone didn't approach the devastation brought by a 1999 "supercyclone" that killed some 10,000 people in the same area.

Phailin has been blamed for 17 deaths, many caused by falling tree branches and collapsed houses. On Sunday, National Disaster Management Authority Marri Shashidhar Reddy said the mass evacuation had been effective. And he criticized international groups that had warned of more damage and stronger winds.

"After the exaggerated manner international agencies tried to portray it [the cyclone and disaster], the NDMA has done an excellent job," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.

The fact that this year's storm didn't exact such a staggering human toll as in 1999 is due to advances in India, according to Victor Mallet, the South Asia bureau chief for The Financial Times.

"Many more people have mobile phones. In the old days, it was just very hard to make contact with remote areas by landline, and now almost everybody has a mobile phone," Mallet tells NPR's Rachel Martin on today's Weekend Edition.

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"So, I think that the better infrastructure plus the predictions that the storm was coming and the preparations that were made meant that the human damage, at least, was not as severe as it was back then," he says.

While India's chief weather agency has a website, it also used Facebook to send alerts about the cyclone. Visitors to the agency's site on Saturday found that its servers seemed to be overwhelmed — but the alerts were appearing on Facebook, making social media efforts even more vital.

The storm has left cars and trucks, trees and utility poles strewn across streets. Thousands of people who were displaced by the cyclone remain in temporary housing. The storm also destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops, officials say.

In Orissa, the state's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says that recovering from the strike will be a "big challenge," reports NDTV.