Rs 58.6-cr damage in AP as Cyclone Fani ruins crops, uproots 10,000 trees

Cyclone Fani, which hit Odisha Friday, triggered heavy rains in coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh besides uprooting 10,000 coconut trees and destroying agriculture and horticulture crops, officials said Saturday.

The cyclonic storm caused damage to the tune of Rs 58.61 crore in AP, mainly in Srikakulam district bordering Odisha, even as normalcy has almost been restored in just over 24 hours, they said.

All the 218 cellular phone towers that were damaged in the storm have been restored Saturday morning while power supply to 659 out of 733 villages has also been restored, the State Real-Time Governance Centre said in a release.

State Chief Secretary L V Subrahmanyam, during a videoconference with Union Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha, said 304 houses suffered damage while there were no casualties.

Agriculture and horticulture crops in 958 acres were destroyed in Srikakulam district and over 10,000 coconut trees uprooted.

In adjoining Vizianagaram district, banana orchards in 229 acres were damaged.

"As many as 274,000 people in 145 coastal villages in Srikakulam district were affected by Fani but there has been no casualty.We have opened 139 relief camps in the district where 15,460 persons were being sheltered.

In Vizianagaram, 2,000 people were shifted to 15 relief camps," the Chief Secretary said.

Subrahmanyam said restoration works related to rural drinking water supply, roads and buildings and municipal departments were being carried out on a war-footing to restore complete normalcy.

A majority of the 2,100 electrical poles damaged in the storm were replaced.

He said 200,000 tarpaulin sheets and 1.2 million drinking water sachets were sent from AP to Odisha while power saws were being sent by helicopters.

The Chief Secretary directed the disaster management secretary to co-ordinate with his Odisha counterpart and take measures to dispatch required material to the cyclone-battered neighbour.