Cyclone Fani toll touches 64 in Odisha

Official sources here today said maximum casualty of 39 death has been reported from the worst hit Puri district followed by 9 from Khordha, six from Cuttack, four in Mayurbhanj and three each from Kendrapara and Jajpur district.

The cyclone had affected a population of 1.65 crores spread over 159 blocks and 52 urban local bodies in 14 districts.

The cyclone had uprooted huge numbers of trees resulting in disruption of road communication. Khordha and Bhubaneswar city have been severely affected.

Telecom towers have also been affected resulting in cellular and telephone network down in the wide area. All telephone and cell phones are down in Puri district. Telephone and mobile connectivity have also been severely affected in Khordha including Bhubaneswar city.

As many as 5244 numbers of Primary School Buildings and 1547 number of secondary school buildings and 980.69 km. of River/ Saline Embankments have been damaged in the cyclone.

Official sources further said out of 25,05,556 affected consumers in Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri, Nayagarh, Khurdha, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur electricity have been restored to 17,05,695 consumers.

Puri- Electricity is yet to be restored and work is going on full swing for restoring electricity to 291171 affected consumers.

Meanwhile, a release from East Coast Railway(ECoR) sources here said train services which were suspended from Puri due to the cyclonic storm Fani, have been resumed.

All express trains originating from Puri resumed the services today and as many as 15 trains left Puri while two trains left from Bhubaneswar and one train from Khurdha Road.

The Puri Howrah satabdi express and paradeep- Barbil intercity express earlier cancelled for cyclone FAni also resumed from today.

The ECoR had cancelled as many as 147 trains as the cyclone Fani had caused extensive damages to some stations, overhead wire, signalling system and railway tracks. 

Image: UNI