Gulab impact: Rain batters AP dists
Amaravati/ Bhubaneswar/ Hyderabad: Cyclone Gulab, which crossed the Bay of Bengal coast near Kalingapatnam on Sunday night, weakened into a depression and caused widespread rains in several districts of Andhra Pradesh on Monday and also left a trail of destruction, as the death toll rose to two with a woman's death. Port city Visakhapatnam received a 30-year high rainfall of over 33.3 cm in 24 hours under the cyclone's impact and left a woman dead on Monday, taking the toll to two since Sunday.
On Sunday, a fisherman was killed in the cyclonic storm in Bay of Bengal in Srikakulam district. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy reviewed the situation with Collectors of the rain-affected districts and directed them to step up relief works. The Chief Minister announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of those killed in the cyclonic storm. In Vizianagaram district, agricultural crops in 13,122 hectares and horticultural crops in 291 hectares were damaged, according to the Collector A Surya Kumari.
Nine head of cattle also died in the cyclone. In Visakhapatnam, boulders fell on a house, causing its collapse and killing a woman, district Collector A Mallikarjuna said. The Collector, along with Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Commissioner G Srujana, inspected the rain-affected areas in the city and supervised the relief operations. Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das visited Srikakulam, the district worst affected by Gulab, and reviewed the rescue and relief operations.
Meanwhile, the Odisha government on Monday said cyclone Gulab did not have much impact on the state following its landfall in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh but road connectivity was partially affected due to landslides and uprooting of trees in some places of Gajapati, Koraput and Malkangiri districts.
Special Relief Commissioner P K Jena said administrations of seven cyclone-hit districts - Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur - have been asked to submit damage assessment reports in the next five days.
The East Coast Railway said 16 trains have been cancelled in view of waterlogging on tracks in the Visakhapatnam-Vizianagaram-Rayagada section.
Cyclone Gulab made landfall at a place in Andhra Pradesh, about 95 kilometres from Gopalpur in Odisha where a large number of people have been evacuated as a precautionary measure.
Furthermore, rains pounded different parts of Telangana on Monday, even as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned that heavy to very heavy rains with extremely heavy rains are expected at isolated places in different districts of the state over the next 24 hours.
The IMD, which issued a red alert for 14 districts in the state, warned that heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain is very likely to occur at isolated places in Nirmal, Nizamabad, Jagityal, Rajanna Sircilla, Karimnagar, Peddapally, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Khammam, Mahabubabad, Warangal (Rural), Warangal (Urban), Janagaon, Siddipet, Kamareddy districts today.
