Lives saved in Cyclone Phailin by World Vision-trained community teams

40 community task force teams have moved around 12,000 people to safe areas during Cyclone Phailin, saving lives and property.

Members of the teams in Ranpur, a small town in the district of Nayagarh in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, were trained by World Vision to prepare for such disasters. 

Around nine million people have been affected by the storm – the strongest in 14 years - with crops worth over 2400 crore (approximately £243million) destroyed. Around 200,000 houses were damaged in the Ganjam district of Odisha alone.

World Vision staff alerted communities and provided megaphones, life jackets, torch lights and ropes to the Community Task Force.

The aid agency has been working for several years with vulnerable communities in India to help better prepare for severe weather.  With the organisation’s help, communities prepare plans for what they will do when a disaster strikes. Families with livestock or crops have also received training to take immediate action and protect their livelihoods from the storm.

“We believe communities are better prepared than they were when the devastating cyclone hit in 1999,” said Kunal Shah, the head of World Vision’s emergency response in India.

“The government and aid organisations like ours have been working tirelessly to make sure that people take notice when they see weather predictions like these and that they have a plan for where they will go and what they will do if they need to evacuate.”