India’s east coast was hit by Hurricane Phailin, a tropical cyclone category five that drew worldwide media attention on Sunday.  Experts from across the globe found glaring similarities to the devastating Hurricane Katrina that hit the southern coast of the United States in 2005, killing about 2,000 people and damaging properties worth $81 billion.
   After examining the consequences of Katrina, the Indian Meteorology Department, the state government and the emergency forces adopted a zero casualty plan, which means if you live on the coast and do not want to leave your home, you will be forced out. Due to this policy, only 18 casualties have been reported as of today.
  Mike Brown, climatologist/meteorologist at Mississippi State University who also enjoys storm-chasing, said Katrina was rated a category three hurricane. The water in such hurricanes tends to rise up rapidly and people often get trapped.
   “The vast majority of the deaths are attributed to the water and the damage caused to properties is attributed to the winds,” Brown said. “You’ve got to get people out of the coast. What we learned from Katrina was, people have lived through other hurricanes before, and they think this is just another hurricane when in fact every storm is different.”
   India’s CNN affiliate CNN-IBN reported 8 million people affected by the Phailin fatalities, numerous damaged properties, snapped power lines, overturned cars and houses were seen. The estimated damage will be predicted in the coming days when the affected areas become accessible.
   Lindsey Storey, Gulfport, Miss. resident who survived Katrina on the coast, said there will always be emotional scars with something like the destructive Hurricane Katrina.
   “There is your life before the hurricane and there is your life after the hurricane, so, for me, life is completely different now than it was before the hurricane.” Storey said. “For people my age, Hurricane Katrina was the first one of this magnitude, because of the timing when Hurricane Katrina came in, the effects were much more catastrophic.”
   Hurricane Phailin broke the Indian Ocean intensity record set by the 1999 Orissa cyclone just prior to its Saturday landfall, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
     Kamal Lochan Mishra,  Odisha state’s disaster manager, explains the evacuation measures that have been taken.
   “We have taken a zero-casualty approach,” Lochan Mishra said. “If people do not move, force will be used to evacuate them.”
    In an updated report on Sunday afternoon, CNN said authorities surveyed the damage Sunday. CNN reported food assistance would be provided to severely impacted villages. Teams from nonprofits organizations also canvassed the affected areas.
  Initial surveys indicate the damage was not as bad as many feared it could be, Save the Children said. But strong winds and heavy rains continued to pound some areas.
    “There may be delays in being able to reach the most vulnerable families with aid,” Devendra Tak, a spokesman for Save the Children, said. “This also means it could take some time before the full extent of the damage is known.”
   The Indian armed forces and National Disaster Response Force will play a major role in the rehabilitation of the affected areas as they did when more than 10,000 were killed in the Himalayas this summer after floods ravaged the foothills, washing away millions of livelihoods.
    K.C. Singh, former Indian diplomat and strategic affairs expert tweeted, “Natural disasters hit poor the worst as no economic security network. A cow dead, boat destroyed, hut gone, birds killed = livelihood washout.”
   In a natural calamity of this magnitude where destruction and devastation is unavoidable, human beings are reminded of Mother Nature’s sheer dominance on planet Earth. We live in an age where technology can only predict a catastrophe, not avoid it.