#zach hollo

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A neighbor of Mittireddi stands outside her home, which was destroyed during cyclone Hudhud but has not been rebuilt. Image by Zach Hollo. India, 2015.

Indian Cyclone Reflects Carnage Posed by Climate Change to Those in Poverty

Months after a cyclone chewed apart his roof and hurled scrap metal slicing into his leg, Tirupathirao Mittireddi can’t get much sleep. But it’s not the natural elements he’s afraid of. It’s the financial burden he acquired to cope with the cyclone’s aftermath.

“They come to me in my dreams,” he said. “The people I owe money to. They knock on the door and scream for me to repay. But I cry and say I don’t have anything.”

Read the full story and watch the video by Pulitzer Center student fellow Zach Hollo, for PRI’s The World.

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Image by Zach Hollo. India, 2015.

What an Elderly Woman of the Slums Has to Say about Modern India, Family, and the Meaning of Life

About seven months ago, Surama Eesar’s slum community was thrashed by a cyclone, which crossed the southeast Indian coastal city of Visakhapatnam with wind speeds of 135 miles per hour. Though the buildings around the slum, known as Indira Gandhi Colony, withstood the storm, the slum itself suffered severe damage. While the slum’s homes have cement foundations that remained intact, almost all of the scrap metal roofs were ripped apart. Surama and her neighbors ran for shelter in a nearby building.

“When we went back after the storm, almost all our belongings were gone. We had no food,” Surama said. Government and NGO relief efforts soon brought food rations to help those most vulnerable. But the event left Surama traumatized and pensive, thinking more than ever about the security that would come with a life outside poverty.

“Everybody wants the same thing in the world,” she said. “A sturdy home, electricity, food and water. That to me is the meaning of life.”

Read the full story by Pulitzer Center student fellow Zach Hollo on our Untold Stories page. 

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Visakhapatnam, #India—A fisherman loads rocks in a net to serve as an anchor. Behind him, a wrecked ship lies abandoned on a dock. It’s been seven months since cyclone Hudhud slammed into India’s eastern coast. But remnants of the storm—from destroyed boats, to uprooted trees, to roofless houses—are everywhere.

Image and caption by student fellow Zach Hollo, via Instagram. India, 2015.

Zach is a student at Northwestern University Qatar. His forthcoming project: Cyclone Reconstruction: Poverty in the Age of Climate Change.