Mass texting and 50,000 volunteers: how India moved a million people to safety

From mass texting to mobilizing 50,000 volunteers, the Indian official who masterminded the evacuation of more than a million people revealed on Thursday how they were moved from the path of a deadly cyclone.

The state of Odisha on India’s east coast has won global praise for the speed and scale of its response to Cyclone Fani, which struck on May 3 packing winds of about 200 km (124 miles) an hour.

It was the strongest summer cyclone to hit the state in 43 years, but the death toll was limited to 64 because authorities managed to evacuate vast numbers of people from its path…

Let the Pain Wash Over: Surviving Natural and Personal Disasters

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated thousands of people along the Gulf Coast. Jamie Aten, Ph.D., a disaster psychologist, had moved with his wife and young daughter to south Mississippi just six days prior. Although their world was shaken, they survived that natural disaster.

Then, eight years later, in July 2013, he received a stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis. Aten used his experience from Katrina and other tragic events, such as the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, tornadoes, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Haiti earthquake, to see him through. In an interview with Heal®, Aten shares the lessons learned, which he has chronicled in his new book, A Walking Disaster: What Surviving Katrina and Cancer Taught Me About Faith and Resilience…