Hudhud cyclone which devastated the North Andhra districts killing 45 people made a landfall with 216 kilometres per hour (kmph) strong winds on the sea coast at Visakhapatnam. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) 10 Battalion evacuated about 10,000 people from the cyclone affected villages, said NDRF Commandant Prasanth Dar.
“The Indian Metrological Department (IMD) predicted heavy rain, accompanied by strong gales at 155 kmph, but Hudhud hit the coast at about 216 kmph when it made a landfall,” said Mr. Dar at a press conference held here on Monday.
Severity of storm“The loss caused by Hudhud was more as the severity of the cyclone continued for more than 12 hours. NDRF under the supervision of DIG S.S. Guleria deployed 26 teams (about 1,100 personnel) from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and New Delhi and rescued thousands of people,” the commandant said.
Assistant Commandant R.P. Bharti who was one among the officers supervised the cyclone operations said that, NDRF team led by Sub-Inspector M. Vasudharan rescued seven persons, including two women, trapped in River Nagavali at Ponnada Lanka village.
320 villages affected“Over 2.5 lakh people were affected due to the cyclone in 320 villages and about 1.35 lakh people were provided shelter in 223 relief camps set up by the government. NDRF distributed more than 10,000 water, food and milk packets and participated in the relief operations in the aftermath,” Mr. Bharti explained.
The damage was extensive as many people took the cyclone warnings issued by the IMD and the government very leniently. However, people cooperated well during the rescue operations, said Deputy Commandants Sohan Singh and Kuldeep Singh while showing a documentary of Hudhud cyclone.
Second in Commandant Sanjay Kumar and Chief Medical Officer Dr. B.V. Rao were present.
