The Cyclone Amphan, which made landfall on the West Bengal coast at the Sundarbans on Wednesday evening, left a trail of destruction on its path in Odisha.
Electric poles were uprooted, telephone and cable television wires were snapped, trees were uprooted and thatched houses were razed due to heavy speed rains and rainfall. Besides, at least two deaths were reported during the calamity.
A three-month-old girl died as a mud wall collapsed in Bhadrak district’s Tihidi area. A 67-year-old woman died in Kendrapada as she suffered cardiac arrest and could not be taken to a hospital due to road blockages caused by uprooted trees.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Kumar Jena claimed that the telecommunications services remained by and large unaffected.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had directed the officials to ensure ‘zero-casualty’ ahead of the impending cyclone. Accordingly, NDRF, ODRAF, Fire Service, police, and district administration officis swung into action and evacuated over 1.5 lakh people from low-lying areas as well as people living in quarantine centres which were in 3-km radius from the coast. These people were shifted to 2921 shelter homes where they were provided free cooked food.
According to the IMD, Jagatsinghpur received highest rainfall of 119.4 mm followed by Kendrapara 74.3 mm, Puri 71.2 mm, Jajpur 50.2 mm, Bhadrak 54.9 mm, Balasore 54.2mm, Cuttack 43.5 mm and Khurda 34.9 mm since Tuesday.
The highest wind speed of 106 km per hour was recorded at the port town of Paradip.