An employee in a private firm here, Arvind Das, said it was only on Wednesday night that he managed to contact family members on the telephone.

The lines were very disturbed, he said; ``All we could gather is that their houses don't have roofs anymore,'' said Das.

He couldn't send financial assistance in any way, he lamented. Neither was there a way to reach there soon.

Most others had similar tales to narrate. ``There was no way by which we could have gone, all we could do was hope for good news,'' said Anupreeta Patnaik, a resident at Gotri. She added that till a few days ago they were banking on newspaper reports. Only last night was she able to get in touch with her family, she said. ``Most of the family members are fine, but our house has been badly damaged,'' said Patnaik.

Divisional Railway Manager K C Jena was also probing in the dark till last night. ``Last night that I was able to speak to my brother,'' he said. He added that his family was fine but there was no information about any of his close associates. ``We have been informed that the houses were there but the families were missing,'' said Jena.

Police Commissioner J Mahapatra, too, was unable to speak to any of his family members in Orissa till this morning. ``They are fine, but our house is badly damaged,'' said Mahapatra.