The Very Severe Cyclonic Storm ‘Titli’, which crossed the Odisha coast early on Thursday morning, left a trail of destruction in Gajapati, Ganjam, Rayagada and Kandhamal districts.
The cyclone which made a landfall at Palasa in Andhra Pradesh between 4.30 am and 5.30 am uprooted trees, electric poles, damaged many houses and affected vehicular communications. It killed 6 people in Andhra.
In Odisha, the most affected was Gajapati district followed by Ganjam.
Roads in Paralakhemundi, Kashinagar, Mohana and Gosani in Gajapati were severely damaged resulting in disruption of vehicular movement in the areas.
But there were no reports of casualties.
Uprooting of trees was reported on Gopalpur-Brahmapur road which affected vehicular communication in the route. The situation was similar in Brahmapur city, where more than 100 trees were uprooted.
Effects of the landfall of the cyclone were also largely felt in Bhanjanagar and Aska. Many street lights and electric poles got uprooted in Gopalpur as well.
Heavy rains lashed eight districts of Ganjam, Gajapati, Khordha, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Bhadrak and Baleswar districts as Titli with high-velocity winds crossed the south Odisha-north Andhra Pradesh coasts leaving behind uprooted trees and displacing three lakh people.
Power supply and telephone lines were snapped in Ganjam, where wind gusted at 165 kmph uprooting trees, levelling houses disrupting road communication.
Similarly, in Raygada hundreds of trees and electric poles were uprooted and roofs of many houses were blown away. Similar was the situation in Kandhamal district.
The cyclonic storm, which made a landfall near southwest of Gopalpur at Palasa of Srikalumum district in Andhra Pradesh weakened gradually by evening, informed the Regional Office of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) here.
IMD sources said that Titli will turn in to a deep depression by Friday morning.
The cyclonic storm will move towards north-westwards and re-curve towards north-eastwards. The cyclonic storm would further weaken and re-curve into deep depression by tomorrow morning.
Later, it will gradually turn into depression and move towards Gangetic West Bengal,” informed IMD Regional Director HR Biswas.
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said the other six killed were fishermen who had ventured into the sea.
Of the 67 fishing boats that had gone into the sea over the last few days from Kakinada in East Godavari district, 65 had returned to the shore safely, the CMO said, adding efforts were on to bring back the remaining two boats.
In Andhra, the road network in Srikakulam district suffered extensive damage, while the power distribution network was also severely affected. More than 2,000 electric poles were uprooted by strong winds.The Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) said the cyclone caused widespread damage in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts, and threw normal life out of gear as heavy to very heavy rains lashed the two north coastal districts districts since late Wednesday night.
While a 62-year-old woman died at Gudivada Agraharam village after a tree fell on her, a 55-year-old man died in a house collapse at Rotanasa village in Srikakulam district, the SDMA said.