Three days after the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani hit Odisha coast, the State government on Monday reached several villages blocked by uprooted trees and collapsed electrical poles for the first time to find people in dire need of water, food and polythene sheets.
The famed marine drive road between Konark and Puri was cleared on Monday. When the cyclone warning came in the last week of April, people living in villages and hamlets had stocked food in their houses. But in the last three days, they had exhausted all theirs stocks. The demand for immediate supply of food and other basic materials is growing louder but officials are unable to meet it.
Polythene sheets are now in high demand as thatched and asbestos roofs were blown away in the strong winds. With green cover in villages completely stripped off, people are finding it difficult to find shelter under the scorching sun.
Several island villages inside Chilika Lake were said to have been badly devastated. To reach them, one has to go 70 km from Puri by road and then undertake an hour of boat journey. Most of the villages fall under the Krushnaprasad block. In the absence of mobile network, villagers had to undertake the strenuous journey to inform government officials about the acute crisis prevailing in their villages.
In Gambarigaon gram panchayat near Satpada under Puri district, carcasses of dozens of buffaloes were lying unattended.
In Bhubaneswar, which is also badly affected, the water crisis became acute due to non-availability of electric generator sets. The problem in slums is multi-pronged. Apart from the daily struggle to get food for the day at centres where cooked food is distributed, people have been running from pillar to post to arrange a temporary roof. During a spell of rain on Monday afternoon, people were seen scurrying for cover while their belongings got soaked.
The challenge in carrying out relief and restoration for a population of 1.37 crore in 14,835 villages and 46 urban centre is enormous. Although the State government claimed that power restoration was in full swing, it was a mammoth ask to bring five 400 kv towers, 220 kv towers (27) and 130 KV (21) back to earlier shape. Besides, four major grids in Khurdha, Cuttack and Puri districts have been damaged.
Meanwhile, the Collectors of Puri, Khurdha and Kendrapura have been transferred for not rising to the occasion.
