Good disaster management by Governments of Andhra, Odisha limits loss of human lives to six
The much-feared cyclonic storm, Hudhud, passed away with minimum loss of lives, as it blasted four coastal districts of north Andhra Pradesh and eight of south Odisha with winds at speeds ranging from 170 to 180 kmph on Sunday afternoon.
However, even though the loss of lives was restricted to six, due to the disaster management operations, it left a lot of damage in its wake, uprooting trees, bringing down buildings, snapping power, communication lines, triggering heavy rainfall and posing threat of floods in the affected parts of the two neighbouring States.
While six people lost their lives, three each in Andhra and Odisha, Visakhapatnam was the worst-hit where the storm made landfall.
Nearly three-and-a-half lakh people, about 2,50,000 in AP and nearly 1,00,000 in Odisha, were evacuated and tens of thousands of people were still being taken to safe places and housed in special shelters, officials said.
According to Andhra Pradesh’s Revenue (Disaster Management) Department, the cyclone left railway lines in Visakhapatnam badly damaged, besides causing “damage” to the airport there. Train services were hit with most of the trains bound for the vulnerable coastal areas standing cancelled. East Coast Railways cancelled 35 trains. A total of 2,48,004 people were ‘affected’ by Hudhud, which also damaged 70 houses and left 34 animals dead, he said.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall could be “caused” by Hudhud in the next few days in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, East Madhya Pradesh, East Uttar Pradesh and the Gangetic belt of West Bengal which may lead to rise in the water level of rivers.
Damage to life in the two States was, however, restricted as people were already shifted to safer places before the roaring speedy winds struck land.
Normal life was thrown completely out of gear as winds with a speed of over 190 kmph battered Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. In Orissa, Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput, Puri, Kalahandi and Kendrapara districts (among the eight identified districts) were impacted by the storm.
“Three deaths have been reported due to impact of Hudhud. Two died after trees fell on them and one in the collapse of a compound-wall in Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts, respectively,” AP Chief Secretary IVR Krishna Rao said.
The cyclonic storm made landfall in Visakhapatnam before noon. The gale, accompanied by heavy downpour, uprooted trees and swept away roofs of thatched huts and sheds.
“The impact of the wind here was such that even the windows of pucca houses were closed,” many a residents in the port city said.
The city has been rendered without power supply since Saturday night and communication systems have collapsed at many places. With no television broadcast available, people are dependent on radio for news and information.
The trail of destruction and severity of the storm prompted Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to request the Centre to declare the cyclone a national calamity.
Naidu, who got a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a Press conference in Hyderabad, told him that the State Government is doing its best to provide relief to people. Naidu has also informed the Prime Minister that the radar monitoring of the cyclone situation in Visakhapatnam has been disconnected.
Though Hudhud crossed the coast during the day, the gusty winds and rain continued and IMD warned of heavy rainfall (6.5-12.4 cm) at most places to very heavy falls (12.5-24.4 cm) at a few places, and isolated extremely heavy falls over West and East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts of North Andhra Pradesh and Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Phulbani districts of South Odisha during the next 24 hours.
Naidu, who reviewed the situation with top officials here, left for Visakhapatnam and vowed to function from the port city till normalcy is restored.
“The Chief Minister has directed the entire Cabinet to reach Visakhapatnam by Monday afternoon,” his Advisor (Communication), Parakala Prabhakar told reporters Reports from Bhubaneswar said three persons fell prey to the cycle on Sunday evening. Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Mohapatra said that a fisherman was swept away in sea current amid a tidal surge while he was trying to save his fishing boat anchored in Puri coast on Sunday.
Earlier, two minor girls had drowned when a mechanised boat engaged in evacuation work in the Satabhaya area in Kendrapada district capsised in a rivulet on Saturday. Mohapatra also informed that a total of 1, 56,169 people had been evacuated to safer places by Sunday evening. Evacuees and others are being provided cooked food at 1,690 cyclone centres spread over nine districts, he informed.
Maximum of 56,949 people had been shifted to 643 cyclone shelters in Gajapati district followed by 13,282 in Koraput and 7,900 in Ganjam district, Mohapatra told. Mohapatra informed that the cyclone would cross the State on its way to Chhattisgarh through Malkangiri’s Mathili and Khairput by 10 pm on Sunday.
The SRC said though the water levels in Rushikulya and Vamsadhara rivers were in increasing trend yet both rivers were flowing much below their danger levels. He further said that the wind speed would scale down to 50 to 60kmph soon in Malkangiri and Koraput districts and rainfall is expected to subside by Monday noon. The evacuees would be sent back to their homes after the rains caused by Hudhud stops, Mohapatra said.
In view of the cyclone, the Railways on Sunday cancelled, diverted and short-terminated more numbers of trains originating and passing through the East Coast Railway (ECoR) jurisdiction while the Airport Authority of India (AAI) cancelled operation of three flights from the Biju Patnaik International Airport here.
“We have cancelled three flights, one Port Blair-bound Air India flight and two Kolkata-bound Indigo flights, today (Sunday) because of the adverse weather conditions,” said city airport Director Sharad Kumar. The trains which were cancelled on Sunday included the Durg-Jagdalpur Express, Korba-Visakhapatnam Express, Secunderabad-Bhubaneswar Visakha Express, Tirupati-Visakhapatnam Express, Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Special, Bhubaneswar-Jagdalpur Hirakhand Express and Bhubaneswar-Jundagarh Road Express.
Similarly, the trains which would be cancelled from Monday from their departure points include the Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam Intercity Express, Visakhapatam-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express, Bhubaneswar-Secunderabad Visakha Express, Puri-Tirupati Express, Visakhapatnam-Koraput Express. Besides, the Jagdalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express and Junagarh Road-Bhubaneswar Express will remain cancelled from Jagdalpur and Junagarh Road, respectively, on Monday.
The Sambalpur-Koraput Passenger has been cancelled for Sunday and Monday and the Koraput-Sambalpur Passenger for Monday and Tuesday. The Howrah-Secunderabad Falaknuma Express would be diverted from Howrah via Kharagpur-Jharsugura-Nagpur-Ballharshah on Monday. The trains which were diverted through via Naraj-Sambalpur-Jharsugura-Raipur-Nagpur include Rameshwaram-Bhubaneswar Express from Rameshwaram and Bangalore-Bhubaneswar Prashanti Express from Bangalore.
The Bhubaneswar-Pune Premium Special from Bhubaneswar Dhanbad-Alleppy Express from Dhanbad were diverted via Sambalpur-Titilagah-Raipur. The Bhubaneswar-Bangalore Prashanti Express from Bhubaneswar will be diverted via Sambalpur-Titlagarh-Raipur-Nagpur on Monday. The Sambalpur-Nanded Express from Sambalpur will be diverted Titlagarh-Raipur-Nagpur and Ballharshah on Monday. The trains which would be short-terminated include the Nizamuddin-Visakhapatnam Express at Rayagada, Howrah-Jagdalpur Samaleswari Express at Titlagarh and the Rourkela-Koraput Express at Raigada.