Cyclone Phailin Relief Fund

 

Cyclone Phailin with the massive storm made landfall with winds of about 200km/h this Saturday in Odisha. The storm tore down power and communication lines and knocked out road and rail links. An estimated 5,000 sq km of mostly paddy crops have been destroyed. Near the coast, houses have been damaged and many villages flooded. The storm surge more than 3m (9ft) high had flooded areas of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts. Woes of people in the cyclone-hit were compounded with disruption of relief and restoration efforts due to the incessant rain across the district for days. With no electricity, drinking water, collapsed houses, these saved lives have no place to go back to. The worst sufferers were the slum dwellers and the people living in low-lying areas in the area.

The evacuation and deployment of about 1200 rescue officials was the biggest in India’s history for such an event. Eighteen people have been killed. Several of the dead were killed by falling trees, but a massive loss of life had been avoided. The storm was the most powerful to hit the region since Super Cyclone of 1999, when more than 10,000 died. Two memorandums have been submitted to the Centre a few days ago pegged the total loss to the state at Rs 21,770.87 crore which, officials say, is huge considering that Orissa’s annual plan outlay for 2013-14 was only Rs 21,467 crore.

OSA is raising funds to help the victims and is going to send the money to CM relief fund only. A committee was formed to determine and publish how we could leverage suitable relief organization that can help OSA funds channelize with minimal overhead to the true victims directly. We will continue fund raising for a limited time so that we can provide a timely help. Please come forward to donate.

On behalf of the OSA, we are requesting our community to support the fund raising drive for the cyclone victims.

Total collection as of 12/15/2013 = $44,659.16

 

You may also write a check payble to “OSA” with “Cyclone Phailin Relief Fund” in memo and mail the check to the following address:

Prashanta Ranabijuli, Treasurer, OSA
3413 Citrine Place, Round Rock, TX 78681, USA

OSA is a registered 501(c)(3) public non-profit organization in the United States and your donations are tax deductible. Please treat the payment receipt as your donation receipt. Your email address is collected for internal documantation purpose and will not be shared with outside entities.