Weathering the Storm in Ersama Class 9 English, Moments – Summary, Explanation, Word Meanings

Weathering the Storm in Ersama is a story about a boy name Prashant and his encounter with a super cyclone. Prashant goes to meet his friend who lives 18 kms away from his home. A terrible cyclone floods the area and Prashant and his friend’s family have to stay at the rooftop. He manages to reach his village with great difficulty and is happy to see his family safe. The leadership qualities of Prashant helped the victims to stabilise their conditions during and after the cyclone.

Summary

On 27th October, 1999, Prashant went to meet his old friend who lived in Ersama, a small town in coastal Orissa. It was about eighteen kilometres from Prashant’s village, Kalikuda. Prashant went there after seven years of his mother’s death.In the evening, a super cyclone struck (hit) the coastal area with high speed (350 km per hour) wind and heavy rainfall. The destruction caused by the cyclone was horrible.

The cyclone led to huge loss of life and property. The cyclone continued for 36 hours. Trees were uprooted and there was water everywhere. Only some broken cemented houses were visible. The dead bodies of animals and human beings were floating everywhere. Prashant’s friend’s house was also filled with water but it survived the destruction of wind as the building was made up of bricks and cement. Prashant and his friend’s family had taken shelter on the roof for two days. Two coconut trees had fallen on the roof of his friend’s house. Those tender coconuts from the trees kept his friend’s family alive without any starvation.

Prashant and his friends family remained on the roof of the house for a couple of days. After that Prashant decided to visit his village as he was worried about his family. Although the place was flooded with water but still he was determined to go to his village. He takes a long stick to help him locate the road and has to swim when he loses the road.

After some distance, he found two friends of his uncle who were also returning to their village and they decided to move ahead together. On their way, they had to push many dead bodies of humans and animals. They couldn’t see any house which was not destructed by the cyclone. Prashant started weeping loudly thinking that his family couldn’t have survived the cyclone.

Finally, Prashant reached his village Kalikuda. He saw that only the roof of his house was remained. Prashant went to the Red Cross Shelter to enquire about his family. He found his maternal grandmother at the shelter and also his other family members. His family was glad to see Prashant alive. Prashant came to know that 86 lives were lost in his village and all the 96 houses had been washed away.

The cyclone caused a lot of damage in Prashant’s village. It was the forth day at the shelter when Prashant decided to help his own family and others. Prashant organised a group of youths and elders. They jointly pressurised the merchant to give rice to hungry villagers. Then, Prashant organised a group of young volunteers to clear the shelter of filth and floating dead bodies.

On the fifth day, a military helicopter dropped some food parcels but it didn’t return again. So, the youth task force asked children to lie down on the sand with empty utensils on their stomachs to communicate to the passing helicopters that they were hungry. After that the helicopters started dropping food and other basic needs regularly.

Prashant found that a many children had been orphaned so he brought them together and made a polythene shelter for them. He asked the women to look after them. After some weeks, Prashant recognised that women and children were getting deeper into their grief. So, he persuaded the women to join food-for-work programme started by an NGO. He engaged with other volunteers to help widows and children to start their life again. Prashant’s group believed that the orphaned children should be resettled in their own community.

Six months have passed since the cyclone had caused heavy destruction. Prashant was so involved in helping others that he didn’t have time to think about his own loss/pain. The widows and orphaned children of the village still thought of Prashant in their hour of grief.

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