Hyderabad: Visakhapatnam, known as the City of Destiny, has turned into a city of ruins as the picture of unprecedented destruction caused by the cyclone Hudhud was becoming clear with each passing hour.
The cyclone, which hit the city of 2 million people on Sunday afternoon, has torn the city apart by shattering all the vital installations, including the only airport. Three days after the cyclone hit the city, life was far from normal as the people tried to pick up the pieces. Rains continued in the city and surrounding areas.
Such was the scene of all-around destruction that Visakhapatnam looked like a war zone as people faced unprecedented scarcity of food, water, milk and other essential commodities.
Even as the army and other agencies tried to help the civic administration, and the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu issued a stern warning against hoarders and black marketeers, prices of vegetables and other food items sky rocketed.
With the Simhadri power plant shut down, the state was facing acute power shortages forcing it to seek the help of neighbouring states.
As the roads were blocked by uprooted trees and poles public transport remains paralysed.
The city and its environs remain without power as tens of thousands of electricity poles have been uprooted. People were desperate to know the fate of family members, but the telecommunication system was paralysed as towers were also brought down by the most powerful winds the region had ever seen.
The winds at the time of cyclone crossing the coast had gust to almost 200km/h. Officials estimated that in the worst natural calamity to befall this region, property and infrastructure worth Rs1 trillion (Dh59.8 billion) might have been damaged.
C Kutumba Rao, vice-chairman of the state planning commission, said that a new methodology will be required to assess the damage to the city. “repair of roads itself will require several thousand crores [10s of millions of rupees]”, he said.
Number of houses damaged fully or partially was put at several thousand but exact figure will be available only after enumeration.
The city has lost its green cover as 70 to 80 per cent of its trees were uprooted.
Roads in many parts of Visakhpatanam and neighbouring districts of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam were badly damaged as very heavy rains and resultant floods washed them away.
Andhra University, another landmark of the city, has been closed down for two weeks.
However in the first sign of semblance of normality returning to the city, South Central Railway announced restoring most of the trains going out of Visakhapatnam. Except Visakha Garibrath, all the trains from Vizag to Secunderabad were being restored, a press release by SCR said.
The train service to the region has been cancelled since Saturday, on the eve of the cyclone.
But most parts of the city was still without power. Such was the extent of damage that the state government has sought the help of neighbouring Karnataka in this task.
On Tuesday there were long queues of people at the petrol pumps and the ATMs. Though the authorities assured people that they had sufficient stock of fuel to last 15 days, desperate consumers made a beeline for the petrol pumps.
But Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed confidence that the situation will return to normal by this evening.
He warned that if the government officials and telephone operators don’t attend their work immediately he would send police to bring them to their offices. He was unhappy with the operators not attending their duties.
Issuing a stern warning to traders against exploiting the situation, he said that onions would be available at Rs5/kg and vegetables at Rs3/kg. “We are getting the supplies of vegetable from 5-6 districts,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that irrespective of income, every family would get 25kgs of rice, edible oil, kerosene oil and other essential commodities. For fishermen and weavers, 50kgs rice would be supplied.
Giving a few glimpses of the gravity of the losses caused by the cyclone, the Chief Minister said that 40,000 electricity poles were uprooted. Indian Navy, which has its Eastern Naval Command in the city, suffered an estimated loss of Rs20 billion and Steel Plant suffered a loss of Rs3.5 billion, he said.
Visakhapatnam Airport had suffered a loss of Rs5 billion as the roof of the terminal was blown away completely and the runway was under flood water. Officials said that it would take another week before the air service could be restored. The roof of Visakhapatnam Railway station was also badly damaged.
The Chief Minister submitted a detailed report of losses with the number of houses damaged, and the extent of crop losses, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
While 200 heavy duty cranes and other equipment were deployed to remove the fallen trees to clear the roads, 150 tankers were requisitioned from other districts to supply drinking water.
The Chief Minister, who undertook an aerial survey of the city and surrounding areas, found thousands of acres of standing crops wilted under water.
