Cyclone Hudhud, which is to make landfall near Visakhapatnam, started to show its impact as it raced towards Andhra Pradesh coast with Srikakulam district witnessing heavy rains along with gales with 120 kmph speed on early hours of Sunday.
The impact will be much more in Srikakulam district as Kalingapatnam and other coastal areas are very near to Bhiminipatnam in Visakhapatnam, where the cyclone is expected to make the landfall in the next few hours.
Srikakulam Collector Gaurav Uppal directed all the special officers to be alert in all 231 villages of 11 sensitive mandals such as Etcherla, Srikakulam, Gara, Narasannapeta, Mandasa and Sompeta.
Normal life was thrown out of gear in the district with EPDCL stopping power supply to almost all the places of the district. Heavy rain up is expected in Sompeta, Kanchili, Kaviti, Itchapuram, Patapatnam, Meliyaputti and other places with the impact of cyclone. Many trees were uprooted in Srikakulam-Kalingapatnam route, disrupting the movement of cyclone-relief vehicles
Curfew-like situation has been prevailing on national highway with restriction imposed on movement of traffic. Srikakulam covers almost 200 km national highway which is the main route to Odisha, Chattishgarh, West Bengal and other places.
As many as three Navy teams reached Kaviti and Etcherla to help evacuation of people from low lying areas. Farmers fear extensive damage to coconut plantations which provides livelihood to over 4.5 lakh farmers in the district.
