The following testimonies from survivors of Cyclone Aila were gathered by MSF staff working in India.
Usha Mondal, Tongtala village
When the cyclone hit, it damaged some of the embankments; the water rose very high and flooded the village. Most of the houses collapsed, including ours. We’ve been displaced for a month and a half and there’s no sign of improvement. You can see the roof of our house from here. We can’t return as it’s still under water. We’ve lost our goats and cooking utensils, clothes [and] grain …most of our belongings were washed away.
With the aid of the local Gram Panchayat (local authority), we’ve built this temporary shelter where I am staying with my husband, two children and mother-in-law. We’ve received plastic sheeting and food, but for the last 11 days we haven’t received anything. My boy got diarrhoea and has been vomiting. Local health workers come once a week to check on us, but the water is polluted and yellow. It’s muddy and now it’s raining every day. I don’t know what we will do if we can’t go back to our houses. Now there are daily tides that continue to flood the village.
I’ve lived here for eight years and I have never seen a flood like this. I don’t know what will happen to us and how long we can continue to live in this mud. I feel sad and scared. The water still rises very high. What if there is another big flood and it destroys our tent? Where will we go then?
Joytsaya Maytc and Sorala Maytc, Karmakali
This is a fishing community with around 350 people. Since the cyclone, 90 percent of the houses are still flooded and people have lost their nets, their clothes and their belongings. Business has stopped because people cannot fish or work their land. We’ve received plastic sheeting from the government, but we need more. Life is a daily struggle. It’s very hot under the plastic sheeting; the water is everywhere. Few people have been able to repair their houses. The water keeps coming in and is very high.
Krishnapadamondal, Kultakali Booth 131
I’m a farmer and the village homeopath. I was away when the cyclone hit and when I came back the next day I couldn’t believe how much water there was. It had risen to waist level and nearly all the houses, including mine, were under water. The water had swept away my grain and cooking utensils, but we managed to save some of our clothes. My daughter’s house is made of bricks and is situated on the embankment on higher ground. I’m staying there with five other families from the neighbourhood. There are four rooms with five people in each room.
We are still surrounded by water here. It’s on both sides of the embankment and every day we have two tides, with the water coming to neck level and flooding everything. It’s been happening at around six o’clock in the morning and again at three o’clock in the afternoon. Everybody goes upstairs and we have to stay there and wait around three hours each time. The time of the flooding varies; sometimes it’s six, then seven, then the next day it’s eight o’clock.
We’ve only had this tide since the cyclone struck. The storm damaged several embankments around here and that’s why the tides are so bad. We’ve been living like this for a month and a half now. I don’t know when we’ll be able to go back home.
The area is prone to floods. We’re on a river island, but it’s never been as bad as this.
We lack food and shelter. We haven’t received anything for 10 days now. All the land is flooded. Our paddy fields are ruined. Until the water goes down and our land is fertile again, we won’t be able to stabilise our lives. But now with salt water getting into the land it might take two years before we can farm again. I don’t know what will happen to us. If things don’t get better soon, we’ll have to send our sons away to find work somewhere else.
Sukumar Paiek, Booth 134 Puruapara village
The storm began in the early hours of the night and within 30 minutes the water rose up to chest level. It was so fast we hardly had time to take anything. I carried one of my children on my shoulders and my wife held my daughter, and we walked through the water as fast as we could towards higher ground. The current was very strong. We were lucky because in other villages people were swept away.
Look around. It’s a month and a half after the cyclone. All the water you see around us used to be agricultural land. I used to grow rice and vegetables, but it’s all under water now. Our house was made of mud and it collapsed. I lost all my money, my clothes, all the grain and crops; we could only save the animals and some of the food, some dahl (lentils) and a small quantity of rice.
We were displaced and stayed 10 days in a school on the mainland. It was a huge building with around 500 families like us and many tents all around the building. The government provided food and shelter, but after 10 days we came back here. The land is still flooded and I’ve been living in this temporary shelter with my wife and three children on the embankment ever since.
I don’t know when we will be able to rebuild our house. The water needs to go down first, but right now because of the daily tides it’s still flooded every day. We have too many problems! I don’t know how we will survive if it continues or where to go. The monsoon is starting and we are very worried that a big flood could happen again.
Jotika Mondol, Tongtala village
We used to be farmers here, but since the cyclone we haven’t been able to work as all the fields are flooded. So we have started fishing, but this doesn’t provide us with enough food for the whole family. I live with my husband, mother-in-law and two children in a temporary hut on the embankment.
When the cyclone hit, within 30 minutes the water rose to waist level. We all climbed into our boat and reached higher ground with the few things we could save. The whole village was flooded and everyone lost their houses. Now the tides are coming. It’s scary. The water can come up to waist level and the current is strong.
It’s really muddy here. We can’t survive just on fish. We hope we will receive more help, otherwise we just won’t be able to stay. I’d like to stay here; it’s my village. But if we don’t get any help, we’ll have to leave. We may be forced to go to [the capital of West Bengal] Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), but I have two small children to feed. What will we do there? I hope my husband can find a job there. Our lives are so insecure here. We’re struggling daily with these floods; this is taking all our strength. We’ve had no time to really plan for anything else. We want to resume our lives, but we just can’t with this water.