Cyclone Phailin has not taken many lives but has left behind a trail of destruction that severely cripples people's livelihood. What did it take to save so many lives in the face of a potential killer? A Down To Earth analysis with a rider: should saving lives be the only mission of disaster preparedness? Alok Gupta from Paradip and Ashis Senapati from Jagatsinghpur in Odisha; Raghuram Puvvada from Hyderabad, Jyotsna Singh and Richard Mahapatra from Delhi