WhatsApp messages with emojis depicting sad, sweaty faces are the response one gets from friends and relatives in Puri, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack after Odisha was hit by Cyclone Fani. The messages are from the lucky ones who get to charge their mobiles.

Demand for diesel gensets and bottled water have soared in the State in the aftermath of the cyclone, which has uprooted a large number of electricity poles.

No power or water

Heat and sultry weather are adding to the people’s woes. Four days after Fani hit coastal Odisha, large parts of Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, and Khurda remain without power supply. This has disrupted water supply, leading to fights over water.

“The diesel gensets are available for ₹1,000-1,500 for 30 minutes to an hour,” said Manoranjan Patnaik from Bhubaneswar. Not everybody is able to manage a generator. Some are walking 500 metres to fetch water for washing and cleaning.

“It is impossible to sleep at night in this heat. Thankfully, Monday was a bit cloudy,” said Maya Mohanty, a Bhubaneswar resident.

Lack of potable water is forcing people to buy bottled water.

“Charging station for mobile phones has also emerged as a business,” said Pranay, adding people are even paying ₹2,000 per hour for diesel gensets in Bhubaneswar.

Trees, electric poles gone

While electricity poles can be erected over the next few weeks, it will be years before the damaged trees are replaced. “The trees are all gone,” said Sara Parida, a Bhubaneswar resident. “There are no trees or no electricity poles,” Mimansa, a college student said in a WhatsApp message.

SAIL has assigned its Durgapur Steel Plant to produce several electric poles.

Srikant Lenka, a Jagatsinghpur resident who has lost mango trees, says his village has been set back by 20 years, reminding him of the 1999 super cyclone that had ravaged the State.

Residents of a multi-storeyed colony in Cuttack, the twin city of Bhubaneswar separated by the Kathajodi river, a tributary of the Mahanadi, have pooled funds to get a diesel genset for 8-10 hours.

Most of the middle-class Odiyas have family members working in the metros. They are making arrangements to deliver essential items such as medicines.

Damage not assessed

With the focus on restoration work and people busy with arrangements for bijli and paani , official estimates on the extent of damage are hard to come by.

Transporters outside the State said they were avoiding national and State highways in the State.

“Vehicles are yet to resume plying as trade and commerce are hit. Poles and trees in the highways need to be cleared,” said SP Singh of the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training, a transport research body.

The State government has prioritised restoring electricity supply to hospitals, airports and railways. Indian Railways, which has seen large scale destruction, is gradually restoring train services.

PSU contributions

Meanwhile, NTPC has provided diesel gensets, 100 km of electric wire, and 1,000 poles. SAIL, which moved 500 electric poles on May 5, has sent another 5,000 poles to the affected areas. The public enterprise has assured movement of 15,000 such poles in a time-bound manner.

A Union Home Ministry statement said that landline connectivity has been restored in Puri though mobile services still remain skeletal. The Centre has also decided to extend registration dates for the JEE Advanced examinations by five more days up to May 14 in the State, the statement said.

(With inputs from Twesh Mishra and Priyanka Pani)

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