Cyclone Hudhud razes Vizag: 6 people killed, several others injured in Andhra Pradesh

VISAKHAPATNAM: Despite the major rescue, relief and evacuation operation taken up by the state and Central governments, Cyclone Hudhud on Sunday mauled Visakhapatnam district, mainly the Vizag core city, with winds gusting up to 200-km per hour.

As it made landfall, the cyclone damaged buildings, uprooted trees, electricity poles, cut off communication, transport network and power supply, killed at least three people and injured several others in Andhra Pradesh.

Read: Cyclone Hudhud: Vizag loses connectivity, communication

Residents said the winds in Vizag were deafening, sounding at times like explosions. Fallen trees, poles and wreckage were strewn across the streets of Visakhapatnam city. Vizag airport was also partially damaged. The two-storied girls’ hostel building of Andhra University partially collapsed.

The wind velocity was so high that it shook apartment buildings, leaving cracks in them; communication towers were uprooted and glass windows of apartments, commercial establishments and hundreds of cars were shattered. 

An apartment in Hanumanthwaka sunk a few centimetres into the ground.

Also Read: Know more about Cyclone Hudhud

Vizagites said that Hudhud had turned out to be the “most dreaded” of cyclones with people being scared to even stay indoors. The port city of Visakhapatnam, home to 25 lakh people and a major naval base, was mauled as the cyclone made landfall with a wind speed of 200 kmph, damaging almost everything in its way.

3 districts suffer total blackout

There were power blackouts in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts as the entire transmission machinery collapsed on Sunday due to the impact of 200 kmph Cyclone Hudhud. 

It will take at least a week for total restoration though works will start immediately after the high velocity winds and gale storm ends, said officials.

Assessment of the damage will be done on Monday morning, but officials say that the impact this time has been worse than the cyclone in 1997.

“It has been complete devastation for the power transmission system. Right from our generating station at Simhadri to the entire power grid supplying to AP Ttransco to each of the end pole is damaged. 

The 200 kmph gale was highly destructive for the poles and the power machinery. Generally a pole can stand up to 140 kmph winds. The impact is worse than that of the ‘97 cyclone,” said energy secretary of AP Ajay Jain.

Damages to the power transmission machinery are expected to be very high, especially in Vishakhapatnam. Meanwhile, all four units of NTPC Simhadri were shut down due to transmission machinery going haywire. This led to 2,000 MW of thermal power generation being put on hold.