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Hudhud hammers India's east coast

Andhra Pradesh worst hit; 5 killed despite major evacuation effort

Agencies
Cyclone Hudhud blasted India's eastern seaboard on Sunday with gusts of up to 195 kilometres an hour, uprooting trees, damaging buildings and killing at least five people despite a major evacuation effort.
The port city of Visakhapatnam, home to two million people and a major naval base, was hammered as the cyclone made landfall, unleashing the huge destructive force it had sucked up from the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal.
The very severe cyclonic storm made landfall in Visakhapatnam before noon. The gale, accompanied by heavy downpour, resulted in trees being uprooted and roofs of thatched huts and sheds being swept away.
Normal life was thrown completely out of gear as winds with a speed of 170 to 180 kmph battered Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts.
The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, the state that bore the brunt of Hudhud's onslaught, said the extent of damage would only become known after the storm abates.
The low toll reported so far followed an operation to evacuate more than 150,000 people to minimise the risk to life from Hudhud - similar in size and power to cyclone Phailin that struck the area exactly a yearago.
While authorities in Andhra Pradesh evacuated 90,013 people across the four districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhaptnam and East Godavari, about 68,000 people were evacuated from coastal districts of Odisha.
The evacuation effort was comparable to one preceding Cyclone Phailin, credited with minimising fatalities to 53. When a huge storm hit the same area 15 years ago, 10,000 people died.
In Delhi, IMD Director General Laxman Singh Rathore said that "Due to the hilly topography, the cyclone's intensity will reduce in next six hours and further reduce in next 12 hours. However, the area (Vizag) will experience heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next three days."
As the storm progresses, it will bring heavy rainfall to very heavy rainfall in Chhatisgarh, Bihar, East Madhya Pradesh and East UP and Gangetic belt of West Bengal.
Aircraft services will be able to operate from today morning as the weather is expected to improve.
While three persons were killed in rain-related incidents in Andhra Pradesh, two were killed in Odisha.
The affected people have been accommodated in 604 shelter homes, Patnaik said, adding the state government was prepared to face the situation caused by the cyclone and possible floods thereafter.
Hudhud is expected to continue to dump heavy rains in northern and northeastern India and, eventually, snow when it reaches the Himalayan mountains.