iii. Describe the fury of the
storm.(whethering the storm in Erasma)
Answers
Answer:
The super cyclone caused great damage and destruction, leaving hundreds of men, women, children and animals dead or injured. It blew away houses, brought down trees and wiped out entire villages. The whole area was submerged in water. Family members were separated and it left behind many orphans and widows.
Answer:
ON 27 October 1999, seven years after his mother’s death, Prashant had gone to the block headquarters of Ersama, a small town in coastal Orissa, some eighteen kilometres from his village, to spend the day with a friend. In the evening, a dark and menacing storm quickly gathered. Winds beat against the houses with a speed and fury that Prashant had never witnessed before. Heavy and incessant rain filled the darkness, ancient trees were uprooted and crashed to the earth. Screams rent the air as people and houses were swiftly washed away. The angry waters swirled into his friend’s house, neck deep. The building was of brick and mortar and was strong enough to survive the devastation of the wind’s velocity of 350 km per hour. But the cold terror of the family grew with the crashing of trees that had got uprooted and fallen on their house, some time in the middle of the night, damaging its roof and walls.
Menacing: dangerous and harmful
Fury: extreme strength
Incessant: unceasing, continuous
Ancient: old
Rent: filled
Swirled: moved or flowed along with a whirling motion
Mortar: a mixture of lime, cement, sand and water used to construct buildings
Prashant was a native of a village in the coastal state of Odisha. On 27 October 1999, he was on a visit to a friend in Ersama which is a small town in Odisha and a block headquarter in Jagatpura district. His village was at a distance of eighteen kilometers from Ersama. He had lost his mother seven years ago. That day, a strong storm gathered in the evening. Furious wind accompanied by continuous rain lashed the place. Screams could be heard as trees got uprooted and destroyed the houses as they fell on them. The water flowed with gush and swept away houses that came in its way.
Video Explanation of Lesson 6 Weathering the storm erasama
Top
There was neck deep water in his friend’s house. As his house was a pucca house, it was able to resist the strong winds which blew at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour. His friend’s family was terrorised because in the middle of the night, trees had fallen on the house, damaging the roof and walls of the building.
The crazed destruction wrought by the cyclone and the surge of the ocean continued for the next thirty-six hours, although wind speeds had reduced somewhat by the next morning. To escape the waters rising in the house, Prashant and his friend’s family had taken refuge on the roof. Prashant will never forget the shock he experienced at his first glimpse of the devastation wrought by the super cyclone, in the grey light of the early morning.
Surge: gush
Refuge: shelter
Wrought: produced as a result of something
The storm continued for the next one and a half day although the wind had slowed down. To escape the rising levels of water, Prashant, along with his friend and his family, took shelter on the roof of the house. As the day dawned, Prashant saw the destruction caused by the super cyclone.
A raging, deadly, brown sheet of water covered everything as far as the eye could see; only fractured cement houses still stood in a few places. Bloated animal carcasses and human corpses floated in every direction. All round even huge old trees had fallen. Two coconut trees had fallen on the roof of their house. This was a blessing in disguise, because the tender coconuts from the trees kept the trapped family from starving in the several days that followed.
Fractured: broken
Bloated: swollen
animal carcasses: dead bodies of animals
blessing in disguise: an apparent misfortune that eventually has good results
Tender: soft, raw
As far as Prashant could see, he saw a cover of muddy brown water. There were the remains of shattered houses surrounded by the water. Dead bodies of animals and human beings floated in the water. Huge trees had fallen and were floating around. Two coconut trees had fallen on the roof of their house. Initially, they thought that the trees had damaged the roof and walls of the house but later, they realized that this proved to be beneficial for them. As they were trapped in the house, they ate the raw coconuts from these trees and saved themselves from dying due to starvation.
For the next two days, Prashant sat huddled with his friend’s family in the open on the rooftop. They froze in the cold and incessant rain; the rain water washed away Prashant’s tears. The only thought that flashed through his mind was whether his family had survived the fury of the super cyclone. Was he to be bereaved once again?
huddled : together in a group
flashed through his mind: came to his mind
Bereaved: to have lost a family member or a friend
They spent the next two days on the rooftop. Everyone was so scared that they sat