Cyclone Phailin is seet to pound the east coast of India with sustained winds of 165 mph. Nearly a half million people have been evacuated from where the storm is expected to make landfall, yet the area is as densely populated as New York City.

http://worldnews.nbcnews....-flee?lite" target="_blank">http://worldnews.nbcnews....-flee?lite

Imagine if Hurricane Sandy had struck last year with the force of Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Andrew. That's about to be what happens right now in India. The death toll could be in the thousands.

I have been watching the coverage ~

Yikes! I hope that people in the affected areas heed the warnings and get out.

A lot of the casualties happen when people don't act in time.

Pray for India.

Very little coverage on this event, huh?

It was a relief to see that the government & people stepped up to the plate and managed to evacuate the people in time to see very, very low death tolls.

Odisha State, India (CNN) -- The last time a storm as powerful as Cyclone Phailin struck the eastern coast of India, 10,000 people died.

So the sense of relief is strong in the state of Odisha, where Phailin made landfall this weekend.

"I felt like I was going to die, everyone was so tense," said Raju Pradhan, who lives with his family in Odisha.

At least 21 were killed as a direct result of the cyclone, according to Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, Odisha state special relief commissioner. Every death is tragic, but considering Phailin was the strongest tropical storm to hit India in more than a decade, the toll could have been much higher.

[edited for compliance]

About 40 miles inland in the state capital of Bhubaneswar, resident Prabir Panda said he and others were alarmed into buying food, candles and buckets by news reports comparing Phailin to Orissa and the Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

And he said he worried when a tree in his garden was blown down and others swung crazily in the wind.

But afterward, people in Bhubaneswar emerged to check out the damage and share their relief, he said.

Property damage in the city was limited to trees and small shops, he said.

Panda praised the evacuations of people from low-lying places, which he said ran against "a cultural feeling that we normally don't move out of our houses whatever the cause."

"This time, the government ensured people are forced to move out," he said.

He said government disaster management teams and military forces had been on the job in his city for two days.

"Everyone is happy with the way the local state government has managed it this time," Panda said.

Full story HERE

PurpleJedi said:

Very little coverage on this event, huh?

It was a relief to see that the government & people stepped up to the plate and managed to evacuate the people in time to see very, very low death tolls.

Odisha State, India (CNN) -- The last time a storm as powerful as Cyclone Phailin struck the eastern coast of India, 10,000 people died.

So the sense of relief is strong in the state of Odisha, where Phailin made landfall this weekend.

"I felt like I was going to die, everyone was so tense," said Raju Pradhan, who lives with his family in Odisha.

At least 21 were killed as a direct result of the cyclone, according to Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, Odisha state special relief commissioner. Every death is tragic, but considering Phailin was the strongest tropical storm to hit India in more than a decade, the toll could have been much higher.

[edited for compliance]

About 40 miles inland in the state capital of Bhubaneswar, resident Prabir Panda said he and others were alarmed into buying food, candles and buckets by news reports comparing Phailin to Orissa and the Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

And he said he worried when a tree in his garden was blown down and others swung crazily in the wind.

But afterward, people in Bhubaneswar emerged to check out the damage and share their relief, he said.

Property damage in the city was limited to trees and small shops, he said.

Panda praised the evacuations of people from low-lying places, which he said ran against "a cultural feeling that we normally don't move out of our houses whatever the cause."

"This time, the government ensured people are forced to move out," he said.

He said government disaster management teams and military forces had been on the job in his city for two days.

"Everyone is happy with the way the local state government has managed it this time," Panda said.

Full story HERE

Good news hardly makes the papers. But at most being safe. RIP to the 21 who lost their lives though.