TNN, May 22, 2010, 03.51am IST
HYDERABAD: Cyclone Laila on Friday weakened into a depression and further into a low pressure area while moving towards south Orissa even as the state government launched the task of rehabilitating about 75,000 displaced people and providing food and water to the thousands stranded in flood waters.
Despite the weakening of the system, the Met officials called for a vigil on the part of the government on Saturday as it predicted widespread rainfall over the north coastal Andhra and Telangana regions during the next 24 hours.
The toll in the incidents triggered by the cyclone rose to 36 on Friday with 12 more deaths reported from Krishna (4), Guntur (3), Vizag (3) and Prakasam (2) districts. "As of Friday, several persons are missing from the coastal districts. At least 172 houses were completely destroyed and 265 suffered partial damage while 367 livestock perished in the cyclone," an official said.
A farmer in East Godavari committed suicide after his four-acre paddy crop got destroyed by the cyclone. Animal husbandry minister K Parthasarathy said the cyclone destroyed about 28,000 metric tonnes of paddy. The other crops destroyed were mango, banana, betel leaves and papaya. Prawn cultivation tanks and salt farming also suffered damage. Most of Prakasam district including parts of Ongole town is still without power. APTransco chairman and MD Ajay Jain said power in 90 per cent of the affected areas would be restored by Saturday.
Rail and road services remained affected on Friday and South Central Railway has cancelled many trains in the sector for Saturday as well. The trains that plied did so at a slow pace and the authorities said it will take at least another 3-4 days for normalcy to be restored.
"But long-distance rail traffic on the Chennai-Bhubaneswar-Kolkata sector may be disrupted if the cyclonic weather conditions move up north," said a railway official. Several APSRTC buses were also cancelled due to road blocks caused by uprooted trees and electric poles.
Officials said the displaced people are being accommodated in about 300 relief camps and that efforts are on to rescue the marooned from the various cyclone-hit areas. A major problem faced by the cyclone-hit people is the high prices being charged by vendors for supplying essential commodities like milk, etc. The government reviewed the situation twice on Friday and decided to wait for another day before calling off the warning issued to fishermen against venture into the sea in view of the rough conditions expected to prevail till Saturday.
Chief minister K Rosaiah will undertake an aerial survey of the affected areas on Saturday. An exact assessment of the damage to crops and property is possible only after reports are received from the district authorities concerned.