Balasore; April 20, 1914:
It was around midday on the 13th that the cyclone swept across this coastal belt affecting Chandipore and contiguous (-adjacent) areas. There were warnings and alertings by the meteorological department. The fishermen were warned that they should not venture out and the hours were roughly specified.
In fact the prolonged low pressure of a fortnight forebode (-hint a danger) a coming storm. The TV network regularly forecast the state (= condition) of the ocean. But in one respect the situation was a little uncertain. Premonitions (= foreshadowings) of the storm were there, but the mass of the stormy cloud was behaving fitfully (= with sudden changes in position), and the exact location of the attack remained ill-defined. Only three days before the final onslaught the area began to feel the impact of the first squall.
The fishermen, for whom fishing on the high seas is their only livelihood, could ill afford to suspend work, unless they were definite about the day or date. The interior part of the coastal town – and a vital part of it – seemed to have been in the of eye the storm. The microwave tower is warped (= bent) and the firm asbestos roof of a school building is virtually ripped off (=torn off). The school authorities are scared as the building houses its main science section. The laboratories look as if plundered. The salvage work is, however, active. The fishermen as a class suffered the heaviest loss in human lives, young and old. Used to such sudden bursts as they are in season and off, they either cruised the coastal line. But as the old ones are thus engaged, the kids of several age-groups disport on and with the sands. The cloudy, cool weather of the past few days proved very salubrious (= pleasant) to them and even the weather did not presage (= foreshadow) anything vicious. In fact, the entire spell took hardly more than half-an- hour.
This reporter got a vivid account from an old employee of a government tourist lodge. The stout lodge saved his life and he was the only survivor. The TV of the lodge had been regularly warning, he said. He was aware that his family of fishers were on the exposed coastal strip. As he narrated he wept. He cursed his fate and inadvertence (= habit of ignoring situations). On the ill- fated day he was about to proceed, when almost at the dropping of an eyelid, the whole tragedy overtook him. It seemed to him that at the bidding of some foul force the sea-waters swelled and surged up and forward. The black storm heaved across and swept and felled all obstacles like trifling objects. The fishers’ boats flew out of the water surface; a confused cry of helpless children, men and women rent the air as the storm fretted (= damaged) and fumed.
Chandipore lies torn and tattered as its people – those who survived this tragedy – recount their loss in men and materials. The state Flood Relief Committee, the Bharat Sewak Samaj and many other voluntary organizations are busy. The Red Cross Society and the World Health Organization have set up camps to determine the extent and nature of the losses. The quietened sea has thrown ashore many dead persons stinking and swollen. NGOs like Paragon Service and others are rendering brisk service in either restoring them to their proper relation or committing them to the mass-cremation squad. My old narrator could get his grandson only.
International organizations like the UNICEF and WHO have sent their teams. The Centre, also, has stepped in. The Human Rights cell of the concerned ministry has camped in the site also. From West Bengal ‘Khas Khabar’, a non-government news agent primarily devoted to picking up crucial grievances, is instrumental in (= active in) interviewing the low-born and the tag-rag (=wretched section) among the fishermen community to focus their grievances.
