Amphan batters northen Odisha, wrecks havoc in Bengal

Bhubaneswar: Extremely severe cyclonic storm Amphan blew past the state, triggering memories of Cyclone Fani but caused far less damage than the cyclone last year. Major swathes of the state were spared, but Amphan did affect the northern districts before it moved towards the Sunderbans to wreak havoc in Kolkata and its adjoining areas.
Several trees were uprooted, roofs of kutcha houses blown away and power infrastructure suffered minor damage in Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts as maximum wind speed crossed 100 kilometres per hour (kmph) in many places in these districts, reports said.Standing paddy crop suffered massive damage in these areas.
The Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur, off the coast of Balasore district, survived the storm. “All our assets are safe and secure. Some trees were uprooted, which we are clearing,” ITR Chandipur director Binay Kumar Das said.
“The worst is over for the state,” special relief commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Kumar Jena announced.
What would have come as a greater relief for the state government, whose cyclone evacuation drill was made difficult by the need to maintain social distancing norms, is that there has been no official report of casualty so far. Unlike previous instances, the government decided not to evacuate people en masse as that would have compromised with social distancing norms during a time the state has been witnessing a spurt in the novel coronavirus cases.
There were, however, two deaths in the state but the government is yet to confirm whether they happened due to the cyclone. “We have information about the death of a child in Bhadrak district. But we are still verifying if it was due to the cyclone,” Jena added even as Bhadrak collector Gyana Ranjan Das said, “Prima facie the death doesn’t seem to be related to the cyclone.”
In Balasore, 55-year-old Sumitra Singh allegedly died after she fell into a drain at Achyutpur. She was on her way home from a cyclone centre. Remuna tehsildar Charles Nayak said, “The cause of her death will be known after postmortem.”
There were some injuries though. In one instance, a couple, aged 46 and 42, in Baliapal block of Balasore district suffered head injuries when a tree fell on their house. They have been admitted to Balasore medical college and hospital and are said to be out of danger. Three members of a family in Soro area of Balasore suffered minor injuries when branches of a tree fell on their asbestos house.
Puri, which bore the brunt of Cyclone Fani, heaved a sigh of relief as Amphan left with barely a trace. The situation was more or less similar in state capital Bhubaneswar and in Cuttack, which witnessed some waterlogging. Bhubaneswar, Puri and Cuttack experienced moderate to heavy rainfall but there was no report of any damage to infrastructure as the wind speed remained below 55 km per hour.
According to preliminary assessment, around 65 power feeder units were damaged, affecting supply to 19 lakh families in Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajapur, Mayurbhanj, Jagatsinghpur and Ganjam districts. About 90% of the telecom infrastructure is intact. Soon after the cyclone passed, telecom service providers were at work to restore damaged equipment, a government statement said.
Safety personnel were engaged in restoration work, cutting branches of trees that fell on roads. Around 20 NDRF and 16 ODRAF units and 231 fire service teams, besides 100 units of Odisha Forest Development Corporation, were involved in road clearance work. “Restoration work is on in full swing. The collectors have been asked to submit damage reports within 48 hours,” Jena said.