Cyclone Laila batters India
Death toll at 26:
INDIA: Cyclone Laila weakened Friday after battered India’s
southeastern coast with several days of torrential rain and high winds
that claimed 26 lives, officials said.
The storm, which formed over the Bay of Bengal, drenched the southern
state of Tamil Nadu before making landfall further north Thursday in
neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where it uprooted trees, electricity poles
and destroyed communication lines.
Andhra Pradesh disaster management commissioner T. Radha said more
than 70,000 people evacuated ahead of the storm had been told to stay in
shelters until Friday evening. Radha told AFP that at least 17 people
had died in storm-related accidents across the state.
Television footage showed cars smashed by fallen trees, huts missing
their thatched roofs, people clearing debris left by the wind and rains,
flooded roads and marooned villages. The heavy rains and strong winds
damaged mango, banana and lime crops, with conservative estimates
putting the losses at two billion rupees (41 million dollars.)
In Tamil Nadu where the storm was blamed for nine deaths, officials
said life had begun to return to normal as flood waters in low-lying
areas receded.
Cyclone Laila was still hovering off the Andhra Pradesh coast Friday,
but its force had weakened with wind speeds down to 75 kilometres an
hour, compared to 125kmh at its peak.
“We think it will weaken further and move in a northerly direction.
But there will be more rains,” said V. Prasad Rao, director of the
cyclone warning centre in Visakhapatnam city.
Another weather office advisory warned fishermen to stay ashore due
to “rough” sea conditions and predicted widespread rains for Orissa
state, north of Andhra Pradesh.
India and Bangladesh are hit regularly by cyclones that develop in
the Bay of Bengal between April and November, causing widespread damage
to homes and fields.
Last May, Cyclone Aila tore through southern Bangladesh killing 300
people and destroyed 4,000 kilometres of roads and river embankments,
leading to major flooding. About 200,000 people were made homeless and
many remain in temporary shelters. Hyderabad, Friday, AFP |