Bhubaneswar, May 3 -- By Ashutosh Mishra
Bhubaneswar: It was like any other morning that day back in 1999. The sky was slightly overcast and a gentle breeze was blowing outside my apartment. I surveyed the sky and the surroundings with a sense of relief.
The night before Met department had forecast a cyclone that was about to hit the Odisha coast. But even the most seasoned weatherman would not have imagined the ferocity of the coming disaster. It was a super-cyclone with a wind speed of 300 kms per hour that hit the coast barely an hour after I had reassured myself that everything was going to be fine.
If memory serves me right it was around 10 am that the wind picked up and soon every tree surrounding my apartment in the Nayapalli area...