Cyclone Arnab Leaves Odisha Market Submerged; Traders Count Losses

Floods from Cyclone Arnab kept the entire Aska market in Odisha’s Ganjam district under water for three days, leaving traders and residents with heavy losses as the water recedes.

Garments that normally sell for around Rs 400 are going for Rs 100 to Rs 150. Sarat Ghadei, who runs a small garment shop, says his losses have reached Rs 5 to Rs 6 lakh, and larger establishments in the market have lost far more. “It’s a disaster; the water rose fifteen feet here,” he says. “If we don’t sell them, they’ll just rot completely. In the end, we’d have to throw them into the river.”

“LIVES WERE SAVED, BUT LIVELIHOOD WAS LOST”

Even concrete houses built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana were flooded, and residents ran for higher ground. “Lives were saved, but livelihood and belongings were lost,” one local says.

Paresh Nayak, a fisherman, says his new concrete house, built with Rs 2 lakh from the PM Awas scheme, was submerged. “We rely on our small businesses and livelihoods to feed ourselves; it will take us four or five years to recover,” he says. Villagers pulled the elderly, women and children out of the house and the rest of the settlement, he says.

BLOCKED DRAINS

Residents say unauthorised construction over a local drainage channel has turned waterlogging into an annual problem. “There is a path for water to flow into the river, but houses were built right in that path,” Nayak says. “Because of these houses, the water couldn’t reach the river and instead spilled over into our area, where we have our farmlands.”

“A PROPER PLAN IS REQUIRED”

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president BC Das visited the area and said the damage across Ganjam exceeds Rs 5,000 crore, based on what he had gathered. He called for long-term recovery, including fixing drainage, and not compensation alone. “You need to provide adequate financial assistance,” he said, urging the government to put safeguards in place so that such devastation does not recur.

THE STATE’S RESPONSE

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi to discuss relief, restoration and disaster-resilient infrastructure, and thanked the Centre for its support. An eight-member central inter-ministerial team visited the state from November 2 to 4 to assess the damage, the Home Ministry said. The team, led by Home Ministry joint secretary Ravi Shankar, toured Ganjam and Gajapati.

Odisha has asked the Centre for Rs 2,526 crore in preliminary assistance, and the Chief Minister has urged the team to recommend adequate aid and long-term measures against recurring disasters.

WHAT HAPPENED

Cyclone Arnab made landfall in Andhra Pradesh on October 28. In Odisha, the cyclone and the floods that followed affected 1.18 lakh people, damaged 75,388 hectares of crops and 1,672 houses, and killed at least six people, with 10 missing, according to the state’s Special Relief Commissioner as of November 1.

Ganjam and Kandhamal were the worst hit. The Chief Minister announced a special relief package and the Navy air-dropped supplies into flooded areas. The state was then bracing for a second storm, Cyclone Murasu, expected on the Andhra coast on November 3.

With inputs from ANI