Cyclone Hudhud Kills 6, Visakhapatnam is Pounded

mangaloretoday.com/NDTV

Hyderabad, oct 13:  Six people have been reportedly killed in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha by Cyclone Hudhud which pounded Visakhapatnam with relentless force on Sunday.

Hudhud has now turned into a ’deep depression’ and the speeds are down to 50-70 kilometres per hour. Heavy rain has been forecast for Odisha, East Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Gangetic West Bengal.

 

Here are the latest developments in this story

   
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu told NDTV that phone lines are down and cellphone towers have been damaged, making it tough to assess the scale of devastation.
   
The extent of the crisis would be known today, he said, urging the Prime Minister to declare the cyclone a national calamity. Mr Naidu also said that he has sought a relief package of Rs. 2,000 crore from the Centre.
   
The cyclone hit Visakhapatnam, which hosts a large naval base, at 11 am on Sunday with winds peaking at nearly 195 km per hour.
   
By Sunday night, the wind speed had fallen to 100 kmph but it was still raining in and around Visakhapatnam.
   
Nearly four lakh people had been evacuated in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in the hours before the cyclone touched down.
   
Odisha was largely saved from the cyclone’s wrath.
   
The windspeed is expected to reduce further and the cyclone is to turn into a depression by today evening. Heavy rainfall is expected in parts of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
   
Flight operations to Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are expected to resume today.
   
The Prime Minister has cancelled his Tuesday’s trip to Varanasi because of heavy rains in eastern Uttar Pradesh following the cyclone.
   
The Indian Ocean is a cyclone hot spot. Of the 35 deadliest storms in recorded history, 27 have come through the Bay of Bengal - and have landed in either India or Bangladesh.