In the eye of the storm

A girl runs for shelter from the heavy rains brought by the cyclone, which closed in on October 12, threatening to cut a wide swathe of devastation through farmland and fishing hamlets.

As rain and wind came in to lash the east coast, India was braced for the worst. A monster storm that hit the same region 14 years ago had killed 10,000 people.

This time, however, the number of casualties was comparatively small. Two days after the cyclone struck, the death toll was counted at 21.

According to aid officials, the loss of life was minimised by the construction of hundreds of shelters since the region's last big cyclone, as well as warnings which started five days before the storm and mass evacuations - often by force.

More than 1 million people were evacuated from their homes in the eastern states affected by the storm.

Among those who left their houses to take refuge were these two women, pictured sheltering in a school compound.

Authorities now face the challenge of ensuring survivors, like this woman waiting to board a boat and return to her village, get adequate support.

"There are a lot of displaced people, and they are very unlikely to return home over the next few days or week," said Unni Krishnan, head of emergencies at Plan International. "There are key challenges ahead, including hygiene, water and sanitation for displaced families."

The cyclone's powerful winds ripped apart hundreds of thousands of mud-and-thatch houses, and storm surges and heavy rains submerged large areas of farmland.

These fishermen's houses, tattered and torn apart, are just some of the properties destroyed by the storm.