Vijayawada/Visakhapatnam: Two persons were killed and one went missing in Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts as Cyclone Gulab tracked its way through north coastal AP on Monday.
Fisherman B. Mohana Rao of Vajrapu Kottur mandal in Srikakulam district drowned at sea on Sunday evening, while D. Bhavani, 37, of Visakhapatnam died when the walls of her house caved in, trapping her.
Visakhapatnam collector A. Mallikarjuna Rao handed over ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh to her kin. A 16-year old boy, K. Krishna Vamsi Reddy, missing from near a stormwater canal at Vizag Steel Plant.
Officials said agriculture and horticulture crops have suffered inundation damage in nearly 1.63 lakh acres in six districts, based on preliminary reports.
Vizianagaram received 120.7 mm rainfall, Visakhapatnam 108.4 mm, West Godavari 93.0 mm, Srikakulam 78.4 mm, East Godavari 71.3 mm and Krishna 40.2 mm on Monday.
Agriculture minister K. Kannababu in a teleconference with senior agriculture officials and joint collectors stated that Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari and Krishna received heavy rainfall after the storm made landfall near Kalingapatnam on Sunday night.
Kannababu said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had issued directions to ensure enumeration of damaged crops to be taken up in a transparent manner, and added that the state government would extend all help to the affected farmers.
Maintaining that the enumeration of crop damage would be done after the water receded, the minister directed the joint collectors to talk to water resources superintending engineers to fields are drained out.
He asked scientists from agriculture and horticulture research institutions and Krishi Vigyan Kendras to tour the rain-hit fields and help minimise the damage to crop by bringing awareness among the farmers.
Horticulture crops suffered damage in nearly 6,630 acres in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Krishna and Kadapa distrits. Horticulture authorities estimated the number of affected farmers to be 6,228 and the input subsidy estimated to be given to them is '546.29 lakh as per norms of State Disaster Response Fund.
Meanwhile, the AP State Disaster Management Authority is enumerating the details of impact of cyclonic storm on houses, livestock and on infrastructure like roads, power and other facilities in the affected districts in the state.
In Srikakulam district, several houses were either fully or partially damaged and power transformers were also repaired to restore power supply in affected mandals.
Fire personnel cleared hundreds of trees which were uprooted and fell on roads and power transmission lines in areas like Palasa, Sompeta, Tekkali, Mandasa, Kothavalasa, Parvathipuram and other areas in the three north coastal districts to restore vehicular traffic and also power supply.
APSRTC incurred revenue loss ranging from '6 crore to '7 crore due to the nationwide bandh and also due to heavy rainfall as it operated only 60 per cent of its fleet of 10,712 buses on Monday.
Bad weather and low visibility at Vijayawada airport caused delayed landing of an Indigo flight from Bengaluru to Vijayawada early in the day. Normalcy restored after some time as the airport operated six arrivals and six departures to Hyderabad, Bengaluru and New Delhi.
