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Immediate Disaster Relief to Orissa, India

Flood Relief Journal

Written by George Fastuca, IDR Director

Day 1: One week ago today, we received notification from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs regarding the monsoon flooding in the Indian state of Orissa. At that time, our emergency relief team began the relief effort and to meet in India. Some members of our team spent over 18 hours traveling to the Mumbai (Bombay) airport and arrived at 3 a.m.

FCF Executive Director Larry Corley and IDR Director George Fastuca survey warehoused emergency supplies for the IDR.
UPS flew the palletized and shrink-wrapped supplies to Mumbai, which was the closest airport to the disaster site.

Day 2: Our task for today was to secure the disaster relief supplies from customs and deliver them to the train station. We met with our local contacts to retrieve the 90 pallets of supplies, receive the necessary governmental documentation, and coordinate the loading of the trucks. As India's highway system is primitive, we decided that rail would be the safest and quickest way to transport the supplies to the state of Orissa. Finally, at 4:30 a.m., the trucks were loaded and ready to proceed to the train station.

Distribution of supplies was coordinated with local government officials.
Local workers loaded supplies on trucks for delivery to the train station.

Day 3: The trucks left the airport at 6 a.m. for the rail station. It took well over 4 hours to unload the trucks and load the train cars with the supplies. We were exhausted when we finally boarded the train for the 40-hour trip to Bhubaneshwar.

And then the supplies were transferred to train cars for the 40-hour trip to Orissa.
Volunteer team members travelled to the disaster areas to personally escort the supplies to the victims.

Day 4: On the train, we spent the time finalizing our distribution and transportation strategy and playing cards. The poverty and squalor of the villages we passed through tugged at our hearts.

Day 5: We arrived in Bhubaneshwar at 7 a.m. The trucks and local workers that were to be available for unloading were not there. So, we unloaded the pallets ourselves and sorted the supplies for the various routes while we waited for the trucks. Eleven trucks eventually arrived. After loading the trucks, we decided to end our day and get a good night's rest for the journey that lay ahead.

Day 6: We left early in the morning for Jajpur (Orissa) and unloaded the first two trucks filled with medical supplies at the local officials in Jajpur to determine which villages most desperately needed supplies, then we divided into two groups to deliver supplies to these villages more effectively. We went form village to village. In each village, an anxious crowd met us. We were amazed at how quickly the villagers unloaded the supplies. The last two trucks in our convoy delivered the rest of the medical supplies to another hospital in Kendrapara. Finally, at 10 p.m., all supplies had been distributed. But, there was still paperwork to complete. We completed the paper work and arrived in Katuk completely exhausted at 4 a.m.

Medical supplies were delivered to a health care facility in the disaster area. The supplies will be used to treat dehydration, amlaria, and acute jaundice.
Desperate villagers assembled to meet the convoy of supply trucks.
Supplies, including bottled water, were delivered to the victims who most needed them.
Disaster victims received emergency supplies of food, water, clothing, blankets, tarps, and flashlights.

Day 7: After a much-needed rest of a few hours, our team met to exchange farewells. We had accomplished our goal of delivering 80,000 pounds of relief supplies to 7.500 victims.

 

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