--- title: A Storm and a Stampede in India Highlight the Ups and Downs of Disaster Response description: A horrific disaster occurred in India on Sunday, killing at least 89 people and injuring a hundred more. But it wasn't the massive Cyclone Phailin,... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7218793/a-storm-and-a-stampede-in-india-highlight-the-ups-and-downs-of-disaster-response/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-10-14T09:45:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-18T14:49:13.288Z article:section: Science og:title: A Storm and a Stampede in India Highlight the Ups and Downs of Disaster Response og:description: A horrific disaster occurred in India on Sunday, killing at least 89 people and injuring a hundred more. But it wasn't the massive Cyclone Phailin,... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7218793/a-storm-and-a-stampede-in-india-highlight-the-ups-and-downs-of-disaster-response/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt646267686c2cf800/6998b5a3e2d64bd3ddc5d70b/184409568.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: 184409568 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Storm and a Stampede in India Highlight the Ups and Downs of Disaster Response twitter:description: A horrific disaster occurred in India on Sunday, killing at least 89 people and injuring a hundred more. But it wasn't the massive Cyclone Phailin,... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt646267686c2cf800/6998b5a3e2d64bd3ddc5d70b/184409568.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) # A Storm and a Stampede in India Highlight the Ups and Downs of Disaster Response > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. 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Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=eef6aa1a-7d90-455e-99b0-94a86a1caf6e&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 14, 2013 9:45 AM UTC  Tropical Cyclone Phailin was powerful, but the death toll was thankfully low Tropical Cyclone Phailin was powerful, but the death toll was thankfully low Diwakar Prasad/Hindustan Times via Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 14, 2013 9:45 AM UTC A horrific disaster occurred in [India](http://topics.time.com/india/) on Sunday, [killing](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/world/asia/dozens-of-pilgrims-die-in-stampede-in-india.html?hp) at least 89 people and injuring a hundred more. But it wasn’t the massive Cyclone Phailin, which [struck](http://world.time.com/2013/10/13/preparedness-pays-off-in-advance-of-indias-cyclone-phailin/) India’s eastern coast over the weekend with winds that hit 124 mph. Thanks to pre-storm warnings and the evacuation of some 900,000 people, the death toll from Phailin was around 20 people by midday Sunday, as the storm was rapidly losing power. The real disaster was a bridge stampede in northern India that happened even as Phailin was churning through the country’s east coast. Spooked by panic that the bridge was about to collapse, thousands of pilgrims stampeded, leaving dozens dead. There’s a lesson here about the porous border between a natural and a manmade disaster. Phailin was a monster, quite possibly the [strongest](http://qz.com/134028/cyclone-phailin-is-half-the-size-of-india-and-strengthening-quickly-as-it-heads-for-land/) storm ever recorded in the northern Indian Ocean. (Meteorologists couldn’t determine Phailin’s exact strength because there were no hurricane hunter aircraft in the vicinity.) It was hitting a heavily populated coast, in roughly the same area where another super cyclone struck in 1999, killing some 10,000 people. There was every reason to expect that Phailin would be a killer. But as my colleague [Nilanjana Bhowmick](http://world.time.com/author/nilanjanabhowmick/) in India [writes](http://world.time.com/2013/10/13/preparedness-pays-off-in-advance-of-indias-cyclone-phailin/), that didn’t happen, thanks to smart disaster preparation from India’s government: --- > “” --- As Bhowmick goes on to note, India could still improve—the 2014 World Development Report found that India was the least prepared for natural disaster risks after African countries. But the successful response to Phailin—at least in minimizing the death toll—underscores that a more modern India may be better prepared for natural disasters going forward. (The fact that mobile phone and TVs have become ubiquitous in India, even in poor rural villages, helped the government get the word out.) That’s a good thing—a 2011 [World Bank](http://topics.time.com/world-bank/) [report](http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/an-urbanizing-india-faces-natural-disaster-risk/) estimated that 200 million more Indians could face threats from natural disasters by mid-century. The low death toll from Phailin is a reminder that the disaster in a natural disaster stems as much from the man-made response to weather (or the earthquake or the volcano or the disease) as it does from the weather itself. Hurricane Katrina was a terrifyingly strong Category 5 storm that hit [New Orleans](http://topics.time.com/new-orleans/) squarely, but it was the failure of government on all levels—and the failure of the levees themselves—that turned it into a human catastrophe. So it is with the bridge stampede, as Ellen Barry [wrote in the _New York Times_:](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/world/asia/dozens-of-pilgrims-die-in-stampede-in-india.html?hp) --- > “” --- These are purely man-made disasters, and as such, they are avoidable. 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