The storm washed away virtually everything, turning them into paupers. And now the express highway to the port town of Paradip is their home.

The loss of life and livestock apart, the once-lush green stretches of paddy fields are now waterlogged. Agriculture has been totally devastated in this part of the state. Standing crops on thousands of acres in Derabis and Kendrapara blocks have been destroyed, depriving people of their only source of livelihood.

Kedar Swain of Balisuan village was the proud owner of 10 acres of paddy fields till that fateful day. He is now on the footpath along with his wife, children and old parents. The highway is now their home and the Indian Air Force choppers dropping food material their only hope.

``The cyclone has made us all beggars. We don't know what to do and where to go,'' he says as his childrenclamour for food. The family has received no relief. For nearly 3000 villagers of Balisuan, the IAF choppers are nothing but a fancy display. They wonder where the air-dropped relief is ending up.So extensive is the damage that even the Army jawans are stunned. Commanding Officer of an Army convoy G P Subash says he has never come across such a post-cyclonic situation. ``It's unbelievable. I think several people must be lying dead inside water,'' he says.

The Army convoy from Ranchi reached Kendrapara on Monday afternoon after 72 hours on the road. It has been assigned the task of undertaking rescue work in Mahakalpada, Pattamundei and Rajnagar blocks, areas highly vulnerable to cyclones and the worst-affected.

While the lifelines of the district are snapped, nearly 500 villages under Derabis block and over 350 villages under Kendrapara block of the district are still marooned with the water level up to three to four feet. Three lakh villagers have been affected.

The villages are completely inaccessibletoday and bicycles are the only means for transporting food material there from the town. While lakhs of people are now living on the roadside, several thousands are still trapped in inundated houses.

Malay Ranjan Dash, an unemployed diploma engineer from Khamarpada village under Kendrapara block, says the villagers would have died if they had come out of their houses.

``Not a single polythene sheet has been provided to the homeless,'' complains Dhiren Kumar Jagati of Fakirabad village under Derabis block, adding ``we are demoralised and have no will to remove our belongings from the debris of our houses.''