OCTOBER 14, 2014 NEW DELHI — The death toll from the powerful cyclone that ripped through the eastern coast of India rose to 25 on Tuesday, with most of the deaths caused by falling trees and collapsing buildings, according to a government official in Andhra Pradesh. The devastation was particularly acute in the port city of Visakhapatnam, where the eye of the cyclone passed on Sunday, and where 15 people died. Nearly 400,000 people had been evacuated from their homes in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, though a relief official in Odisha said Tuesday that most people there had returned to their homes. In Visakhapatnam, the roughly 120-mile-per-hour winds of the storm, called Cyclone Hudhud, had mangled and destroyed electric and telephone poles, according to disaster officials. “Communication is completely paralyzed,” said M. Jagannadham, the Andhra Pradesh additional commissioner for disaster management, who said that three districts in the state were badly affected. Television reports aired on Tuesday showed crowds in Visakhapatnam swarming a gas station and one of the only working ATMs. Residents said that the lack of electricity had made it impossible to take out money, and that a shortage of some food items was driving up prices. Channels also showed locals in the state surrounding relief trucks bearing food and being fended off by police officers with sticks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday to assess the damage. In Odisha, 80,000 mud homes belonging to tribal people were destroyed by heavy rains, according to P. K. Mohapatra, the special relief commissioner in the state. Officials in Andhra Pradesh said that the scale of the destruction there had not yet been calculated....
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:17:36 +0000
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