October and Cyclones

Everybody knows about the Super Cyclone that hit Orissa on October 29, 1999. The Nightmare still remains today. But just before that there was very severe cyclone that hit the south coastal Orissa and north coastal Andhra Pradesh on October 17, 1999. Berhampur city was the worst hit.
Right from my school days, low pressure used to be a good sign for me, reason, holidays and no studies. But never thought that cyclone could be so dangerous.
It was Puja time and the city was completely decorated. On 17th, it was raining cats and dogs. Some relatives had to come that day to celebrate puja at my place. I went to the station to receive them, it was afternoon, and most of the roads were flooded, somehow I reached the station and waited for two hours as the train was late. I could notice that I was one of the few people who were present at the station. It was something different I felt, I received my relatives and somehow managed an auto which charged double the normal. There was a power cut right from the morning. And luckily I brought a packet of big candles from the nearby shop, which was very useful for the rest 15 days.
The next day was the wedding of one of my friend’s brother in the nearby town. They had ordered sweets from my place and I had to take them along with me the next day morning. The rain continued. I stood on my balcony watching the rain. My friend called me and said that he heard in the news bulletin that there is a very severe cyclonic storm and told me not to venture out.
My mother didn’t allow me go out in the night to bring the sweets, somehow with the help of a friend I took my scooter and went to the market. The market was closed, and couldn’t see the road at all, everything was flooded. On the way I could sense that the wind speed was increasing and I was not able to control my scooter. I reached home and told my mother to close all the windows and the doors tightly. She asked me the reason but I didn’t give a proper answer. I was sensing danger.
We all had our dinner and went to the bed; I couldn’t sleep for some time. Suddenly I could hear the sound of wind and heavy rain. I peeped through the window but nothing was visible. The speed of the wind started increasing; it was difficult to close the window. Everybody in the house woke up. It was raining heavily. Water started entering from all sides. I could hear nothing but the sounds of flying objects outside. My heartbeat increased. The relatives who came from north India got tensed as they never heard anything like that. Even my mother got tensed, I tried to calm her down and said nothing to worry but somewhere inside I too was feeling the same. After three hours of continuous speed the wind suddenly stopped, as the adage says there is a lull before the storm. It happened again, after ten minutes, but this time it was much stronger. Our windows broke and the water started gushing in. We only prayed god. For the next two hours it was a hell. I didn’t know what was happening. I put my head on my father’s lap and just watched and prayed god. It continued till the morning. When it stopped we all came out, Berhampur was no longer the same city. It was flattened; there were no trees, only concrete buildings. There was no electricity, telephone, drinking water anything. We had live in that way for 15 days. Being in a bigger town our fate was this. I can imagine what would have happened to the rural areas. Even now, whenever I hear about the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. I get nervous.