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Life was limping back to normalcy on Monday morning, after the havoc wrought by the cyclonic storm Hudhud throughout Sunday.
The storm crossed the coast at Pudimadaka village in Visakhapatnam district on Sunday afternoon. The position was similar in the two north-coastal districts of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram, but the cyclonic impact was less felt by the people of East Godavari. So far three casualties have been reported.
The rain and gales abated by Monday morning, and people were seen on the roads littered with all sorts of debris - tangled electric wires and cable wires, uprooted trees and electric poles and signboards torn apart by the fury of wind. At several places, walls collapsed and people were seen cutting the tree branches and clearing the roads for two-wheelers.
Long queues were seen in front of petrol bunks, and milk was not available. As the power and communications systems were totally disrupted, ATMs were not functioning.
"It may take at least three to four days for resuming banking services. If the communication network is restored, we can resume the services on generators. We have power back-up, and our priority is to resume the ATM services at least as quickly as possible,'' said P Ravi Ramana, the Assistant General Manager at Andhra Bank zonal office.
He said the position was similar in all the 90 branches of Andhra Bank in Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts. The mobile ATM of the bank was damaged at the zonal office at Seethammadhara as an uprooted tree fell on it.
Port operations were suspended at Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram ports on Sunday due to the cyclone, and power generation was affected at the Simhadri thermal power station of NTPC.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is arriving in the city by afternoon to supervise the relief work. The National Disaster Response Force and the Navy teams are at work to restore normalcy.
Functioning of the Visakhapatnam steel plant and other PSUs was also badly affected on Sunday.
ODI cricket match doubtful : The one-day international cricket match to be played between the West Indies and India here on Tuesday at the Dr. Y.R Rajasekhara Reddy stadium is doubtful, in view of the cyclonic havoc.
In a statement issued on Monday morning, G. Ganga Raju, Member of Parliament from Narsapur in West Godavari and the general secretary of the Andhra Cricket Association (ACC), said the association had sent a message to the BCCI about the ground conditions and weather conditions. A special flight clearance would have to be obtained for the teams to land here. He said a decision was awaited.
The ACC has a super sopper and, if there is no further rain, the ground can be made ready for the match, according to sources. However, the weather should permit the landing of the teams.
According to M.V Seshagiribabu, Chairman and Managing Director of the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL), the power lines in the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari were totally disrupted. More than 40,000 electric poles, including 12,000 in Visakhapatnam alone, were badly damaged. "It may take sometime to restore the power," he said, without specifying the timeframe.
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