Indians say cyclone evacuation kept them alive

Indians say cyclone evacuation kept them alive

PODAMPETTA, India (AP) – Agya Amma’s house in this seaside village was flattened by the cyclone that roared in from the Bay of Bengal with torrential rains and winds topping 200 kilometers (131 miles) per hour. But the fact that she was still here today, surveying the pile of twisted wood and shredded thatch that had been her home, was proof that this was a different kind of disaster for India. Unlike past storms that have lashed India’s eastern coast, Cyclone Phailin did not extract a heavy human toll, thanks to a massive and improbable evacuation effort that effectively moved nearly 1 million residents of one of India’s poorest regions out of the storm’s path and into government shelters.