HYDERABAD: More than 120 people were killed and hundreds driven from their homes by torrential rains last Saturday as India’s southeastern coast braced for the full force of a cyclone, officials said. Reports Say some 270 people, mostly fishermen, had been missing for more than 24 hours and naval helicopters had been pressed into a search operation.
Meteorological experts in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh, said the cyclone was heading towards a point near Vishakhapatnam, site of South Asia’s largest shipbuilding yard. But the storm showed some signs of abating. “It seems to have slowed down,” Sharma said. The storm’s winds had fallen to between 40 and 50 km (25 and 30 miles) an hour, down from as high as 100 km (60 miles) earlier in the day. Waves at least a meter (three feet) higher than normal were expected to inundate low-lying areas of southern Andhra Pradesh, home to nearly 25 million people, mostly poor farmers and fishermen.
But P.V. Rama Rao, director of Hyderabad’s meteorological center, Said the cyclone might end up bypassing Andhra Pradesh, the most vulnerable area because of its low-lying Coast, and strike farther north in Onssa state, The coast of Andhra Pradesh, across the subcontinent from Bombay, is particularly prone to cyclones. Torrential rains damaged more than 500 houses in coastal areas and ¢ 7 placed nearly 200 families. swe? water destroyed roadside kiosks, brick houses and huts. Seven people died when they were struck by lightning. But weather experts said this cyclone, dubbed Tropical Cyclone 03B by meteorologists, schemed less powerful than the killer storms of the past. “Tries merely a rain storm, not a wind storm,” Rama Rao said. “It has very low potential to cause extensive damage or devastation.”
Article extracted from this publication >> June 26, 1996
