The impact of very severe cyclonic storm ‘Hudhud’ seems to have commenced with light to moderate rainfall at Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and over coastal Odisha on Saturday morning. To avoid property and life loss, the State Government has commenced evacuations of people from low lying areas in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and West Godavari districts since morning.
In addition to this, the government is making elaborate arrangements to meet any emergency situations arising due the cyclone’s impact. In all, 64 mandals and 396 villages in the five districts are prone for the cyclone impact and more than 3.90 lakh people are likely to be evacuated from these districts.
Among these, 1,85,211 would be evacuated from Srikakulam, 24,000 from Vizianagaram, 23,956 from Visakhapatnam, 72,743 from East Godavari and 86,080 from West Godavari. Arrangements have been made for provision of 30 rescue teams from navy with boat and equipment at Visakhapatnam and one column will be heading to Srikakulam and arriving there by 2 P.M. today.
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One column of army from Andhra Sub Area is also stationed at Visakhapatnam, the provision of 15 Satellite Phones (Visakhapatnam 8 and two each to Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, East Godavari and one from BSNL at Srikakulam).
Emphasis is laid on provision of essential commodities and authorities claimed already all the commodities, including water, food, first aid kits are kept ready at cyclone prone villages in the five districts. Nearly 370 relief camps, including 110 in Srikakulam, 65 in Vizianagaram, 47 in Visakhapatnam, 97 in East Godavari and 51 in West Godavari.
This apart, 13 teams from NDRF are stationed at different locations in the five districts and three teams are kept in reserve at Guntur district. Special Officers were appointed to each of cyclone prone mandals in five districts, revenue department authorities claimed.
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