Cyclone Titli kills 8 in Andhra
No casualties in Odisha; both states face power cuts and traffic disruptions; 150 fishermen stranded
Cyclone Titli, packing windspeeds of up to 150 kilometers an hour, killed eight people in Andhra Pradesh and left a trail of devastation in coastal areas of the state and neighbouring Odisha on Thursday, damaging property, uprooting trees and power pylons and disrupting electricity supply, road and railway traffic.
In another testament to Odisha’s expertise in disaster management, no fatalities were reported from the eastern state, where the government had evacuated over 300,000 people from five coastal districts and taken precautions to limit damage to infrastructure.
Traffic on the Chennai-Kolkata National Highway was hit after uprooted trees blocked some sections of the road. The South Central Railway as well as the East Coast Railway cancelled several trains while some were terminated midway. Train services between Khurda Road in Odisha and Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh were also suspended.
The Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) said the cyclone caused widespread damage in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. Road network in Srikakulam was extensively damaged and the power distribution network was severely affected. More than 2,000 electric poles were uprooted by strong winds. The Eastern Power Distribution Company, which caters to the electricity needs of the north coastal districts of Andhra, reported that distribution system for 4,319 villages and six towns in Srikakulam had been affected.
A 62-year-old woman died at Gudivada Agraharam village after a tree fell on her and a 55-year-old man died in a house collapse in Rotanasa village of Srikakulam district, the state disaster management authority said. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s Office said the other six killed were fishermen who had ventured to the sea.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Titli, which means butterfly in Hindi, made landfall near Palasa in Srikakulam district, southwest of Gopalpur in Odisha, with maximum and sustained surface windspeeds of 140-150 km per hour, gusting to 165 km per hour, between 4.30 am and 5.30 am.
In Odisha, chief secretary AP Padhi said the brunt was borne by Gajapati district, where the cyclone dumped over 200 mm of rainfall. Major roads in the district were cut off.
As one metre high tidal waves lashed the coast in Gopalpur, people flocked to the beach to take selfies in the rain. In Ganjam, a pregnant women who delivered a baby at a community health centre this morning, named her Titli.
About 150 fishermen had gone deep sea fishing off the Gopalpur coast in 35 trawlers Wednesday, but they were stranded as the cyclone grew in intensity during the night. Director of the Bhubanesar Meteorological Centre, HR Biswas, said the cyclone, after hitting the coast, weakened and was in the process of becoming a depression before moving towards Gangetic West Bengal.
The Centre had earlier rushed nearly 1,000 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel to Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal and kept the armed forces on standby. Meanwhile, the rains and high sea tides opened a new mouth in Odisha’s Chilika lake, Asia’s biggest brackish water lagoon.