)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Visakhapatnam Tuesday afternoon to assess the impact of Cyclone Hudhud on this industrial city and the neighbouring districts. He would meet state government officials and also undertake an aerial survey.
PM Modi is expected to spend about two hours in the city, according to AP government's media adviser Parakala Prabhakar.
The day after the cyclone hit hard the port city, uprooting trees, damaging communication and electricity supply network and houses with high-speed gales, the state government machinery and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams has stepped up restoration of basic amenities to the people, besides clearing trees and other debris from the roads.
The death toll has increased to 21, according to an official statement.
Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who rushed to Visakhapatnam Monday morning, announced additional relief measures like supply of 25 kg rice to each affected family and 50 kg rice for fishermen and weaver families. Naidu has already written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking an immediate assistance of Rs 2,000 crore to restore normalcy in north coastal Andhra.
The chief minister has constituted five teams with IAS officers besides deputing 30 All India Services officers to oversee emergency, rescue and rehabilitation efforts in the 44 affected mandals.
According to government statistics, 117 villages in 11 mandals of Srikakulam district, 103 villages in 11 mandals of Visakhapatnam district, 22 villages in 2 mandals of Vizianagaram district, and 78 villages in 20 mandals of East Godavari district have been affected.
The full picture of actual damage on the ground is still being assessed and would take sometime, Prabhakar said at a press conference today.
However, there seems to be some ambiguity in the number of evacuees and missing persons. The chief minister said about 500,000 people had been shifted to rehabilitation camps while the statistics compiled by the administration showed the same at 135,000 with the total number of persons affected as 248,000.
