Cyclone Phailin hits 90 lakh people, huge loss to crops,houses

Cyclone 'Phailin' today left a trail of destruction, hitting nearly 90 lakh people, damaging over 2.34 lakh houses and laying waste paddy crop worth about Rs 2,400 crore as Ganjam district bore the brunt of the very severe storm, the worst in 14 years to hit the Odisha coast.
Communication links have been vastly disrupted by the strong winds that went upto a speed of 220 kmph when it crossed the coast near Gopalpur last night and weakened towards becoming a depression as Odisha heaved a sigh of relief that major casualties have been avoided.
Authorities in the state evacuated nearly nine lakh people, the largest in recent history, ahead of the storm to cyclone shelters and public buildings like schools to avoid a repeat of the disastrous 1999 super cyclone that left 9,885 people dead.

Defence and paramilitary personnel were deployed to carry out relief and rehabilitation measures and restoring infrastructure badly affected by the storm.
Seven people were killed in Odisha before the cyclone made the landfall last night due to fall of trees while one person was killed in Andhra Pradesh in a house collapse in Srikakulam district.
The cyclone weakened this morning and was moving northwards and will settle into a deep depression by the evening. Under its impact, heavy rains lashed coastal districts of Puri, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Sambalpur in inland Odisha, parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the primary aim was to minimise loss of human lives and they have successfully managed to do so.

"Property to the tune of several crores has been damaged...Rehabilitation will now be done," he said.
Giving details of the devastation caused by the cyclone, Odisha Revenue Minister S N Patro said 14,514 villages in 12 districts have been affected, hitting a population of 80,53,620.
Over 2.34 lakh houses have been damaged and more than 8.73 lakh people have been evacuated.
Over five lakh hectares of standing crops have been destroyed by the gushing waters causing an estimated loss of Rs 2,400 crore, he said.