Hyderabad, India (AP): A powerful cyclone that slammed into India's eastern seaboard weakened as it moved inland Monday, leaving at least eight dead in its wake.
Rescue workers readied helicopters, aircraft and ships to carry out relief operations once daylight made clear the extent of damage.
In another storm lashing Asia, Typhoon Vongfong was downgraded to tropical storm as it hit the Japanese island of Kyushu after battering the southern island of Okinawa. At least 37 people were injured, and authorities advised 150,000 people to evacuate. Train service and flights were disrupted in Kyushu and the neighboring island of Shikoku.
Japan's Meteorological Agency said the storm could reach the Tokyo area by early Tuesday.
In India, Cyclone Hudhud moved 150 kilometers (95 miles) north-northwest of the city of Visakhapatnam, where it made landfall Sunday. Weather forecasters downgraded it to a tropical depression, with wind speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour (45 miles per hour), considerably slower than on Sunday.
Death toll
The death toll rose to eight, five in Andra Pradesh state and three in Orissa state, mostly caused by wall collapses and falling trees, Indian officials said.
It was still raining across the region, heavily in some places. Authorities plan to make an assessment of the damage caused as the day breaks and then decide on the contours of the relief operations.
Experts said the storm was likely to have caused widespread destruction along nearly 300 kilometers (185 miles) of India's east coast. Communication services and electricity were cut off in some areas.
Naidu said 500,000 people in four districts were shifted to relief camps from the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states ahead of the storm, and hundreds of shelters were set up to house them.
Visakhapatnam, one of the largest cities in southern India and a major naval base, was bearing the brunt of the cyclone's fury.
Television footage from Visakhapatnam showed downed electrical poles, uprooted trees and massive debris strewn in the streets. Electricity lines were disconnected in parts of Andhra Pradesh to avoid electrocutions, said Arvind Kumar, a relief and rescue official.
Andhra Pradesh's chief minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, said Sunday that while the early evacuations had saved lives, the cyclone caused "huge damage" to buildings and crops in the coastal districts.
The Indian Ocean is a cyclone hot spot. Of the 35 deadliest storms in recorded history, 27 have come through the Bay of Bengal - and have landed in either India or Bangladesh. In 1999, a cyclone devastated Orissa's coastline and killed at least 10,000 people.
While India has a disastrous record of response to natural calamities, it managed last October to safely evacuate nearly a million people out of the path of Cyclone Phailin, the strongest tropical storm to hit India in more than a decade.
Phailin destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of crops after it made landfall in Orissa, but claimed only about 25 lives.
Relief operations
Meanwhile, relief operations began Monday in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam city and other coastal areas, a day after severe cyclonic storm 'Hudhud' made the landfall, leaving a trail of destruction and killing five people.
With rains receding in the cyclone-hit areas and intensity of gales also coming down, people came out of their houses, only to find that the scale of devastation is much higher than anticipated.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams with personnel from various government departments began clearing felled trees, electricity and communication poles and hoardings from roads.
While precautionary measures helped in minimising the loss of human lives, the cyclone disrupted electricity and communication networks, paralysed transport and damaged over thousands of acres of crops.
Visakhapatnam, also known as Vizag, bore the brunt of Hudhud, which hit its coast with the speed of 185 kmph. Hundreds of vehicles parked on roads were damaged while heavy rains inundated few colonies.
Airport, railways and bus stations were also hit in Vizag, which remained without electricity for the second consecutive day. With the collapsing of communication networks, mobile phones are non-functional here.
With no drinking water, milk and other essential commodities, people are facing severe hardships.
