
Saving a Million People from a Cyclone - happy-go-lucky
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/world/asia/cyclone-fani-india-evacuations.html
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subhrm
I am a resident of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, India . We are
currently bearing the brunt of Cyclone Fani. The wind speed was phenomenal ,
comparable to the super cyclone of 1999.

Even after 48 hours the city is in dark.

But thanks to proactive steps of the govt agencies the casualty number is much
less than that of '99s.

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sbmthakur
Good to see this! In 2013, Cyclone Phailin had hit Odisha. Even then large
scale casualties were averted owing to proper co-ordination between various
Government agencies.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Phailin#Odisha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Phailin#Odisha)

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omegaworks
>Government workers drafted lists of people in vulnerable houses, particularly
the elderly and children.

This is particularly important to note given the current contention over the
2020 US Census. The administration desires that a "citizenship" section be
added to the survey, in an environment where that same government has used
these kinds of lists—those of DACA recipients and process-abiding individuals
going to court for their immigration hearings—to conduct broad sweeps for
deportation.

Failure to collect information as critical as "how many people live in a given
area" weakens us in the face of disaster response. As climate change ensures
we have more catastrophic events, racism at the very top of government ensures
its ravages are felt by the most vulnerable.

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FireBeyond
The Census and Census takers have always worked on dealing with homeless,
transient, and undocumented populations, and survey them regularly.

Trump's thing is about "asking the question".

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omegaworks
"Asking the question" of undocumented people is not innocuous from a nazi-
sympathizing administration[1] that has called that population "animals[2]."

1\. [https://www.vox.com/2019/4/26/18517980/trump-unite-the-
right...](https://www.vox.com/2019/4/26/18517980/trump-unite-the-right-racism-
defense-charlottesville)

2\. [https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ol-enter-the-fray-
about-t...](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ol-enter-the-fray-about-those-
immigrants-trump-referred-to-1526569123-htmlstory.html)

~~~
FireBeyond
No, I absolutely agree. That was my point, that asking that question is
irrelevant from a "well, we need to know how many people are really here". The
Census already does a good job of that, for a wide variety of populations.

