01/28 

   

Mail from Puri 17/5/19  

      Puri city is totally destroyed. No trees are standing, all electric poles, installations, mobile towers, roofs of Hotel and houses made of asbestos or Steel blown off. All houses from the light house to Ishopanthi ashram are blown off. The sea beach road resembles a mountain of sand. Hotels along the beach totally destroyed with sand and rubble flown in with the storm.

     Coming to more personal issuses, the damage to the building and property of Karunalaya, Ishopanthi ashram and Beatrix school is beyond words. All window glasses of school and Ishopanthi are broken, 10KW solar panels in the school, 16KW solar panels in Ishopanthi ashram are totally destroyed and blown off, solar panels and solar water heating system with 4 water tanks of the hostel and school main gate are blown away. No trees are standing in Ishopanthi ashram and Karunalaya office premises.  Clearing the debris and fallen trees may take couple of weeks. Even after 6 days, electricity is not restored in Bhubaneswar city, leave alone Puri.

     God alone knows what more is waiting for me in the leprosy colony, dairy farm and workshop when I return on 15 May. Even a fair assessment of the damage may take few days . You all have been with us in the thick and thin of our life in Puri mission.

      I only pray God shows us the way and gives us the strength to stand amidst this destruction. I shall briefly keep you informed of the things when I reach back in a week's time.

     Meantime, I shall be grateful to you for any help you are able to extend to rebuild our lives and Mission in Puri. With much love and prayers,

     Your loving, Baptist, svd

All Solar Panels in School and Ishopanthi are destroyed.

Panels are destroyed in Karunalaya.

Some Window Glass was destroyed in School and Ishopanthi.

All Water Tanks of School was not found.

No life casualties was happened.

In School gardens are damaged.

In Karunalaya road was blocked due to tress are falls.

Also most of the tress are falls at Karunalaya.

The entire Baliapanda Localities was finished.

Also almost all hotels near sea Beach was damaged.

Dear friends, unfortunately we have received terrible news from Puri.

I quote the words of those who are personally experiencing this tragedy:

"Dearest Nirvanananda, I know how worried you are about Puri and people here. Puri is cut off since 9am from the time the cyclonic storm landed in Puri. Seems like severe damage to property of the poor people living in low lying areas. Our school is full with people from yesterday. May be @1000 are sheltered in our school. Br.Simon told me government is supplying food.

A friend in Bhubaneswar said, he has never seen such destruction. The severity will be more in Puri Fortunately our leprosy victims are safe, as they have good houses now. Thanks to donors we have been able to give them decent houses.

Our children from hostel are away at home as the school was closed on 18 April.

Last part of the storm as it looks water everywhere like a sea. Not known the situation around in the villages

Dark all over, no chance of power tonight, our battery down."

The following photos were taken at the Bhubaneswar train station, the city is about 70 km from Puri.

As soon as we have new news we will let you participate!

Thank you for your help and indispensable support.

Shantipuri Friends Foundation is a 501 (C) 3 organization and your donations are fully tax deductible.

And here is the party that was organized in honor of the students who attend the last class

and who have thus arrived at the end of the exams with success.

At the end of January 2019, the 101th anniversary of Father Mariano's birth was celebrated in Puri.

On this occasion an inter-religious meeting was organized with some people who had been his friends.

Wishes from the village of Birikote

click on the image to see the pdf format

click on the image to see the pdf format

In Puri the children's day was celebrated,

here are the photos taken at the Beatrix School ....

....... and those of the school of Pentakotta ...

(the girls with the new uniforms)

A conversation with historical photos