Phailin claimed one life and created large-scale damages and devastations here, flattening hundreds of houses, uprooting trees and electric poles, disrupting road traffic and telecommunication and destroying vast areas of crops.
The wind speed reached between 165 and 180 kmph, while heavy downpour kept lashing for days. The sea waves rose as high as three feet in the Paradip, Erasama and Balikuda coasts.
According to the official reports, one Sridhar Das, hailing from Chainpur village under Balikuda block, was killed. While he was moving to a safer place on Saturday evening, a tree fell over him killing him on the spot. District Collector SK Mallick confirmed that Das was the only casualty of the gale in the district. However, Mallick added about 18 Tamil Nadu fishermen were rescued by the district officials from Ramatara village near Erasama block when their fishing boat capsized near Astaranga due to the storm.
All the victim fishermen reached the coast on Saturday morning. After preliminary treatment at the district headquarters hospital here, they were discharged. The district administration supplied them with food, clothes and other necessary items before being shifted to Bhubaneswar for their immediate return to their State on Tuesday, Mallick informed.
Huge trees and electric poles were uprooted every where. Even the district headquarters remained in dark for two days and power supply was restored only for departments committed to emergency services on Monday afternoon. Till filing of this report, electricity had not been restored in four block headquarters. About 38 KV feeders were affected, 85 KV stations damaged and 1,336 lT poles were uprooted at nearly 1,230 villages and two municipalities in the district. Till Monday, power supply had been restored to about 501 villages and the two municipalities, informed CESU executive engineer Shiv Prasad Swain of the Jagatsinghpur division.
Meanwhile, BSNl had restored its telecommunication network. About 172 km of roads of the Roads and Building department, 80 km of the RD department and 1,316 Panchayat roads had been affected due to tree falling. However, till Tuesday, the trees had been lifted from the roads and communication on the roads had been restored. About 211 piped water supply projects had been affected, while till Tuesday, 130 projects have been made functional. Nevertheless, in order to provide water to the gale-hit people, about 16 tankers had been pressed into service. After restoration of electric supply, all the defunct piped water supply projects will be made serviceable, informed RWSS executive engineer Antaryami Nayak.
The Revenue Department has asked all tehsildars to prepare house damage reports. As per information, about 345 Kutcha houses had been fully damaged in several blocks, while 4,048 houses had been partially damaged. 290 slum dwellers in Paradip and Erasama areas had been hit as their shanties were completely swept away, informed district emergency officer Dr Swata Kumar Das.
Acting on the Government instruction, about 101,457 people from low-lying and sea side areas, mainly in Paradip, Balikuda and Erasama, were evacuated and all the victims were put up in 195 relief camps.