Srikakulam braces for side effects as Fani heads to Odisha for landfall

Srikakulam: Srikakulam district remained largely unharmed by the super Cyclone Fani barring a few spells of rain and some squally winds till late Thursday night.

Nevertheless, the district officials are gearing up to tackle one of the worst cyclones India has seen as it inched closer to Kalingapatnam by Thursday night before veering towards Odisha.

The cyclone is expected to batter the district from Thursday night to Friday evening with extremely heavy rains and gusty winds as it would make landfall on the Odisha coast by Friday afternoon. Huge damage to the crops and houses is expected in about six mandals of Srikakulam on Friday.

According to the official statistics as of 9 pm, MS Palli of Kanchili mandal received the maximum rainfall of the day – 5 cm, followed by Palasa 4.9 cm, Sompeta 4.8 cm, Mandasa 4.6 cm, Nandigam 4.5 cm, Gara 4.5 cm, Itchapuram 4.4 cm, Sompeta 4.3 cm, Palasa 4.2 cm. Almost all parts of the Cyclone Fani-prone mandals have received more than 2 cm rainfall.

Srikakulam district Collector J Nivas said that the winds are expected to blow up to a speed of 180 kmph in Kaviti, Kanchili, Sompeta, Vajrapukotturu, Itchapuram and the nearby mandals as the wind speed at the cyclone centre is about 250 kmph.

“The cyclone has intensified into a super cyclone on Thursday. I request the public living in the kutcha houses or old/damaged houses to immediately shift to the nearby cyclone relief centres. There should be no single death due to cyclone. We have procured milk packets to distribute in the cyclone-affected areas and 237 extra generators will be procured by Friday to see that there would be no interruption in the services to the public such as water, mobile network and others,” Nivas said.

District officials have set up 126 cyclone relief centres in 15 mandals and about 20,000 people took their meals in the relief centre.

Apart from the Srikakulam district administration, three IAS officer are monitoring the cyclone preparedness measures and relief measures in Srikakulam district. These include two project officers of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) of Paderu and Parvathipuram, DK Balaji and G Lakshmisha, respectively. Rajahmundry municipal Commissioner and IAS officer Sumit Kumar also joined the team on Thursday night.

Nine NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) and 10 SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) teams have been deployed in various mandals of the district. A total of 50 mobile charging units have also been arranged by the district administration for the six most prone mandals wherein each charging unit can be used to power up 23 mobile phones at a time.

Moreover, the district officials have identified 117 and 107 probable flood inundation villages under Vamsadhara and Nagavali rivers respectively to evacuate them. Apart from the command and control centre at the district collectorate, control rooms have been set up at all mandal and revenue division headquarters to monitor the situation on a regular basis

Officials of the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Ltd (APEPDCL) said that about 5,000 staff are ready with them to take part in the cyclone relief measures.

District education officer M Sairam informed that the schools provided meals to about 23,000 cyclone victims on Thursday afternoon and the number had increased by the night.