Andhra Pradesh spared from the fury of cyclone Phailin

Cyclone Phailin has spared much of its fury on Andhra Pradesh.

The State did not suffer the feared damage, as the cyclone roared its way through the three north coastal Andhra district. It crossed the coast near Gopalpur in Odisha on Saturday night, leaving a trail of devastation across the coastal districts.

While only one cyclone-related death was reported from Andhra Pradesh, the State Government is yet to quantify the precise loss that Phailin had wrought on the State.

A 60-year-old man Chakali Muthyalu died due to wall collapse at Buddepupeta in Srikakulam district, which bore the maximum brunt of the cyclone.

The State Government did well in evacuating over one lakh people living in the low-lying areas of these three districts to cyclone shelters before Phailin hit the coast. Throughout the night, as Phailin was unleashing its fury, these people remained huddled in the cyclone shelters with adequate food and water.

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has directed his officials to complete enumeration of losses to crops and horticulture, apart from assessing loss of animal life and property damages.

Preliminary report indicates that loss to animal life would be about 33, while less than 80 houses were damaged in these districts. Paddy crop would be inundated over 7,115 hectares, maize over 100 hectares, sugarcane 100 hectares, coconut 3,219 hectares, cashew 929 hectares, vegetables 663 hectares and banana 283 hectares.

A weather office bulletin said the cyclone would move north north-westwards and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm by noon and a deep depression by today evening.

It said there would be rainfall at most places and isolated extreme heavy falls (25 cm) over Odisha.

Rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy falls would occur over north coastal Andhra Pradesh during the next 24 hours. Gale winds speed of 130-140 kmph prevailing at 5.30 am gradually decreased to 80-90 kmph by noon.

The State Government has now shifted its focus to rescue and relief.

Reddy directed his administration to distribute 10 kg of rice to each fisherman family, as they would not be able to depend on fishing for their daily livelihood for a few more days. It is estimated that 422 tonnes of rice would be distributed to 42,279 fisherman families in the three north coastal districts.

Disaster response

He announced that a State disaster response force on lines of the National Disaster Response Force would be immediately set up to counter natural disasters.

“The proposed State force will initially have 1,000 personnel, who will be trained in relief and rescue operations.

The Director General of Police and the Director General of Fire and emergency Services will together work out the formation of the force,” he said.

Trains rescheduled

Several trains running along the east coast have been partially cancelled or diverted.

Trains which have been either partially cancelled or diverted include Bhubaneswar-Mumbai CST express, Yesvantapur-Puri Express, Bangalore-Bhubaneswar Prashanthi Express, Howrah-Hyderabad East Coast Express, New Jalpaiguri-Chennai Express, Haldia-Chennai Express, Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express and Secunderabad-Bhubaneswar Visakha Express.

>amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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