1999 Orissa Cyclone - Impact and Records

Impact and Records

The cyclone dumped heavy torrential rain over southeast India, causing record breaking flooding in the low-lying areas. The storm surge was 26 feet (8 meters). struck the coast of Orissa, traveling up to 20 km inland. 17,110 km² (6,600 mi²) of crops were destroyed, and an additional 90 million trees were either uprooted or had snapped.

Approximately 275,000 homes were destroyed, leaving 1.67 million people homeless. Another 19.5 million people were affected by the supercyclone to some degree. A total of 9,803 people officially died from the storm, with 40 others still missing, though it is believed that 15,000 people died. 8,119 of those fatalities were from the Jagatsinghpur district. Another 3,312 people were injured. 2,043 out of 5,700, or 36% of the residents of Padmapur perished. The number of domestic animals fatalities was around 2.5 million, though the number of livestock that perished in the cyclone amounted to only 406,000. The high number of domestic animal deaths may have possibly had to do with around 5 million farmers losing their livelihood. The damage across fourteen districts in India resulted from the storm was approximately $4.5 billion (1999 USD, $5.1 billion 2005 USD).

Ten people in Myanmar were reported to have been killed by the tropical cyclone, while another 20,000 families were left homeless.

When Cyclone 05B reached its peak intensity of 912 mb, it became the most intense Tropical Cyclone of the North Indian Basin.