The big clean-up con­tin­ues in the wake of pow­er­ful Cyclone Hud­hud which affect­ed the Bay of Ben­gal leav­ing a path of dam­age. Some media accounts put the toll at 46 lives.
The area has some of the world’s strongest trop­i­cal cyclones. Locals quick­ly evac­u­at­ed the coast fear­ing a repeat of the 1999 Odisha Cyclone that claimed 10,000 people.
Ama­teur Radio Soci­ety of India Nation­al Coor­di­na­tor for Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Jayu Bhide VU2JAU says the area, par­tic­u­lar­ly the town of Vishakha­p­at­tanam, had trees uproot­ed, tele­phone lines and mobile phone tow­ers dam­aged and rail­way lines blocked.
The storm made land­fall on Octo­ber 12. Amid the dis­as­ter scene hams worked hard to main­tain the com­mu­ni­ca­tions for the pub­lic and authorities.
In a report Jayu VU2JAU said there were many active on the morn­ing net of 7.145 MHz that kept on air 24 hours a day.
These includ­ed those from the Bhu­vanesh­war area — Preeti VU3UFX, Rajesh VU3PLP, and Samir VU2AOR. In the Sam­balpur area were Samir VU2AOR, Dilip VU2DPI, Shan­tanu VU2SIC and Pawan VU2PGU.
The Andhra coastal area had fur­ther emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions involved hams under the con­trol of the Nation­al Insti­tute of Ama­teur Radio.
Jayu VU2JAU was in radio con­tact with them, includ­ing hourly bul­letins as they worked hard and were appre­ci­at­ed by the police and oth­er authorities.
He said that while the worst was over this time, lessons on how to pre­pare for the next big storm can be learned.
Jayu VU2JAU will vis­it the state of Odisha to make ham radio fail-safe dur­ing an emer­gency. This includes a repeater sta­tion for VHF hand-held radio communications.
The loca­tion of an easy to use sim­plex repeater will be dis­cussed with the local Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment authorities.
Jayu VU2JAU said such a repeater works well in his home town of Gwalior and author­i­ties there have agreed to a mock dis­as­ter drill involv­ing the repeater.
Hams are now ready should their ser­vices be want­ed when Cyclone Nilo­far makes land­fall at Gujarat in the west­ern part of India by the weekend.
Pre-emp­tive evac­u­a­tions have already occurred but the lat­est fore­cast is that this cyclone will not be as pow­er­ful as Hudhud.
— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.