HYDERABAD, India // Rescue workers rushed on Monday to restore communication and power links and clear roads after a cyclone smashed into India’s east coast, killing at least nine people and leaving a trail of destruction.
Relief centres dished out food as officials said the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people ahead of Cyclone Hudhud’s arrival had helped avert a far larger tragedy.
Most of the deaths were caused by falling trees and the collapse of flimsy homes in worst-hit Andhra Pradesh state. A one-year-old toddler from the port city of Visakhapatnam was among the dead.
“There’s no power, no water or milk, no electricity. We’re not getting petrol. We cannot move on the roads,” the Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed resident of the storm-hit area as saying.
The storm struck just before midday on Sunday, bringing torrential rain and packing winds of nearly 200kph before weakening as it barrelled inland.
“The death rate has risen to nine,” Krita Rao, an official of the Andrea Pradesh disaster management authority. Nobody died in neighbouring Odisha, the other state in the cyclone’s path.
The Indian navy was ready to sail with relief material while two dozen diving teams were deployed around Visakhapatnam, and two military aircraft were assessing destruction, a government statement said.
Authorities in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha evacuated around 350,000 people – mainly fishermen and farmers living in crude huts – before the cyclone hit in a bid to avoid large casualties caused by previous cyclones.
“The government was able to reduce loss of life due to precautionary measures,” Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said.
PK Mohapatra, Odisha’s special relief commissioner, said his state was “better prepared this time” after Cyclone Phailin killed at least 18 people in the state last year.
“People followed our cyclone warning – there was hardly any traffic on the roads,” Mr Mohapatra said, adding that 200,000 people had been evacuated from areas at risk of flooding in Odisha by late Sunday.
“No one was killed in [Odisha] by Hudhud,” he said, although two children and a fisherman died at the weekend when their boat capsized as they were being evacuated.
In Visakhapatnam, which bore the brunt of the storm, roofs of many homes were ripped off and hundreds of fallen trees and power pylons blocked roads.
Disaster management officials said clearing roads was their priority to ensure people could have access to relief centres set up in schools, hospitals and government offices.
Communication lines were snapped, water and power supplies were cut off, the city’s airport was water-logged and bus and railway services were halted.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams began restoring power to affected areas as evacuees started trickling home from cyclone shelters.
* Agence France-Press
