Cyclone and Storm Surge - Iczmpwb.org

1.2
IMD, in its website (http://www.imdmumbai.gov.in/cycdisasters.htm) article on the surge prone coasts
of India also mentions that the vulnerability to storm surges is not uniform along Indian coasts. The
following segments of the east coast of India are most vulnerable to high surges:
1. North Orissa and West Bengal coasts.
2. Andhra Pradesh coast between Ongole and Machilipatnam.
3. Tamil Nadu coast, south of Nagapatnam.
It may be of interest to note that the West coast of India is less vulnerable to storm surges than the
east coast of India in terms of both the height of storm surge as well as frequency of occurrence.
The strong winds associated with a cyclone may destroy infrastructure, including dwelling houses
especially if these are the rural thatched types with mud walls. It must be remembered that the
regions very prone to cyclonic storms lie along the coastline and the socio-economic standard of the
people residing here is, on an average, rather low except for the few towns. It is also well known that
cyclonic storms are also associated with heavy precipitation. Hence, inundation by flooding due to
high rainfall is also considered as a disaster related to tropical cyclones.
The table of disasters in India (for the entire nineteenth century) presented in the UNDP website
under the title “Disaster Related Database” also shows that the State of West Bengal has suffered
the worst due to cyclonic storms, followed by floods, droughts and earthquakes. Hence, the present
task of evaluating the hazard caused by cyclones to the state and recommendations of mitigation
measures has been the result of a prudent and timely decision.
1.2. Background, key concepts and methodology
The project was initiated at the request of the Department of Relief, Government of West Bengal after
an initial meeting that took place in June, 2005 at Writer’s Building’s, Kolkata. It emerged from this
and the subsequent meetings that the loss of lives and property due to cyclones having been quite
heavy for the State, there is an urgent need to evaluate the hazard and vulnerability of the different
cyclone prone regions and suggest possible disaster mitigation measures. It was also decided that
the suggestive measures should more or less be in the lines of National Cyclone Risk Mitigation
Project (NCRMP) guidelines.
The core of the project lies in the determination of the following:
1. Hazard analysis: This includes the study of cyclone tracks and related information for past
years as available and evaluation of the hazard to the different parts of the state that are