Two people were killed in Srikakulam of Indian state of Andhra Pradesh's as cyclone Titli uprooted trees and electric poles and damaged hutments in the region and in Odisha's Ganjam and Gajapati districts after making landfall Thursday (Oct 11) morning. 

The cyclone also triggered heavy rainfall in at least three districts and caused minor damage to power and communication. Power supply and telephone links got disrupted and road communication snapped due to uprooted trees at many places of Gajapati district.

Efforts are on to clear roads blocked by uprooted trees and restore power supply in affected areas at the earliest, he said. In all, eight districts — Ganjam, Gajapati, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore — have been affected by "very severe cyclone Titli", officials said. 

As cyclone 'Titli' entered the land mass in India, some districts, including Ganjam, Gajapati and Puri, are receiving good amount of rainfall coupled with high speed wind. Director of Meteorological (MeT) Centre Bhubaneswar H R Biswas said the "very severe cyclonic storm" (VSCS) is being monitored by the coastal Doppler Weather Radars at Visakhapatnam, Gopalpur and Paradip.

As part of its pre-cyclone preparedness, the Odisha government has evacuated over 3 lakh people living in low-lying areas of the five coastal districts ahead of the landfall. They were accommodated in 1,112 cyclone shelters.

Altogether, 105 pregnant women in Ganjam district and 18 in Jagatsinghpur have been shifted to hospitals, the SRC said. He said 13 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) have been deployed at several places along with fire brigade.

Inputs: News 18

BDST: 1313 HRS, OCT 11, 2018
SI/SMS