Giving Compass' Take:

• Liby Johnson explains that the unusual timing of Cyclone Fani presents unique challenges for disaster relief because the summer storm has implications for crops and shelters. 

• How can funders best address the pressing needs of individuals and families impacted by Cyclone Fani? As climate change persists, how can funders prepare for future "off-season" storms? 

• Learn more about disaster relief and recovery. 

Cyclone Fani is a rare phenomenon for a tropical cyclone, even for Odisha, a favourite playground for these storm systems that leave behind such destruction on a regular basis. The ‘rare’ness comes from the season in which Fani chose to visit – towards the end of the summer season. Most of the cyclone-caused disasters in recent memory have happened in October or November.

We cannot approach the response to Cyclone Fani, in the way we have approached other cyclones.

When a cyclone hits in October or November, the kharif crop is standing and often gets damaged. That means an average farming family will probably have no food production for the rest of the year and will need food aid till the next crop is harvested. Given that there is very little irrigation coverage in most of the places where a cyclone hits, the next harvest will be a year away.

In a summer cyclone, it is not the standing crop that is damaged, but the seeds and other inputs stocked or prepared for sowing in the kharif season that starts in June or July. The livelihood rehabilitation measures needed then are very different from that of a winter cyclone. The farmers will need immediate support for inputs, and as almost every farmer raises the kharif crop, the numbers to be covered are very large.

When a cyclone hits in October or November, the monsoon has typically reached its fag end in Odisha. What people need to be prepared for is protection from cold weather in the winter months, which are moderate in the case of Odisha. This leaves ample time to rebuild houses on an incremental basis. In the case of a summer cyclone, the shelter challenge is more complicated. The onset of  the south-east monsoon in Odisha is typically around 15 June as per information provided by IMD. Once the monsoon sets in, there will be continuous rains and people will need robust shelter to protect themselves and their belongings. A roof and walls that can withstand the rains are therefore an urgent necessity.

The best approach to solve these immediate challenges, especially that of shelter, is to mobilise the affected communities themselves. The immediate shelter restoration activity should become a community-managed one, rather than a techno-managerial solution provided by the government or a funder. Financing norms will have to be tweaked and the collective ability of the communities, where possible, will have to be triggered. This will lead to retrieving available materials from the damaged structures, common procurement of materials where necessary, and pooling in of labour to help each other. In many villages, the problem of shelter can be solved with this approach.

Read the full article about recovering from Cyclone Fani by Liby Johnson at India Development Review.