Odisha,located on the eastern seacoast of India is a common place to cyclones that come form the Bay of Bengal.On 17-18 October 1999,cyclone hit five different districts of the state.Another supercyclone occured on 29 October 1999,that destructed large parts of the state.

The damages caused were mainly due to three factors:-

1)Wind Velocity 

2)Rain

3)Tidal Surge

The winds of upto 260 km per hour lasted for over 36 hours.These high velocity winds uprooted trees and damaged many of the kutcha houses.Roof tops of several industrial sheds and other houses were also blown away.Power supply and telecom lines were seized completely.Heavy rains occurred under the influence of the cyclone for three days continuously.These rains led to flooding in the major rivers of Odisha.The cyclonic winds caused tidal waves that ran till 20 km in land and brought huge destruction to the coastal areas.The 7 to 10 m high tidal wave came up suddenly and caused massive damage to the standing paddy crops.

The cyclone originated in the Gulf of Thailand,near east of Port Blair,on 25 October 1999 gradually moved in the northwestward direction.It transformed into a super cyclone and hit the area between Erasama and Balikuda in Odisha on 29 October at 10:30 am.The supercyclone swept the entire coast of Odisha not even leaving the cities of Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack along with 28 coastal towns.About 13 million people were affected.A large number of livestock were killed.Standing crops of paddy,vegetables and fruits were heavily damaged.Due to the mass effect of the tidal surge,large area of agricultural land have turned infertile.Large land of sal,teak and bamboo plantation have disappeared.The mangrove forests between Pradeep and Konark vanished.