• Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to batter the west coast of Goa in two decades, ripped out power supply poles, and everything that came on its way as winds in gusting in excess of 75 km per hour blew over Goa on Saturday afternoon till Monday which brought entire Goa on its knees exposing once again the ill preparedness of Disaster Management.
• Socky Da’ Silva a tourism operator from down south Goa who in the past voiced his concerns for Goa being less prepared for any natural disaster of such proportions have once again called the authorities to prepare a master plan to avoid losses both to public and government properties in future.
Goemkarponn desk
MARGAO: Post cyclone Tauktae the coastal communities in Goa are looking at damaged homes, fishing boats, water sports equipment, washed out coast, uprooted trees and to top it all is a significant loss to their livelihood.
Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to batter the west coast of Goa in two decades, ripped out power supply poles, and everything that came on its way as winds in gusting in excess of 75 km per hour blew over Goa on Saturday afternoon till Monday which brought entire Goa on its knees exposing once again the ill preparedness of Disaster Management.
The cyclone not only piled pressure on the state authorities as they grapple with a massive rise in coronavirus infections and deaths as well as a shortage of beds and oxygen in hospitals but the staff of the electricity department and fire and emergency services had to work nonstop to clear the mess left behind and to clear the roads and restore power supply area by area in the state.
The Covid-19 pandemic since the beginning of last year had brought miseries to the coastal communities as last two tourism seasons have been washed away and post Tauktae these people are staring at not only loss of their belongings but loss of livelihood in the longer run many felt.
Socky Da’ Silva a tourism operator from down south Goa who in the past voiced his concerns for Goa being less prepared for any natural disaster of such proportions have once again called the authorities to prepare a master plan to avoid losses both to public and government properties in future.
“Lot of local communities have lost their livelihood interms of their belongings like boats, nets, tourism infrastructure like water sports equipment and structures as the water surged much higher into the inland than any one had expected” Da’ Silva said.
“Thousands of small boats owned by local fishermen all across the Goan shore from north to south Goa have sustained damages as the huge waves which were above two meters hit the boats nonstop for two days.”
“Nets have either damaged or washed away leaving these fishermen in desperate financial situations” Da’ Silva informed.
“We have lost most of our water sports gear which was on the shore in the cyclone”.
“It was beyond our imagination that the waves will reach so high” said a stakeholder from a beach in Salcete.
“Most of us are small time players and we don’t have our equipment covered under insurance, the government has announced that compensation will be paid but who knows when it will come and how much it will be” he said.
