Manish Kumar, OP
Bhubaneswar, May 3: The disastrous impact of cyclone Fani was also felt in the state capital as the city came to a standstill for the whole day as the cyclone hit the city. The widespread disaster led the city towards a “cyclonic shutdown”.
Starting from the early morning, the cyclonic storms started playing havoc in the city as thousands of trees were seen getting uprooted in series and falling onto the roads while several electric poles followed the trend and were seen bent and smashing to the ground, living the citizens at tenterhooks.
The surge in their intensity combined with heavy rains started playing havoc and increased the quantum of devastation in the city by noon. A ground visit by this correspondent revealed that city roads which had series of trees along there periphery saw huge destruction as many of the trees were seen smashing onto the roads and blocking it for the day.
Not only trees, but electricity, broadband and landline services took a hit as the cyclone destroyed electric poles and towers.
Large numbers of trees were uprooted near Capital Hospital, Janpath, Secretariat Road, Surya Nagar, Jharpada, Laxmisagar, Old Town and other areas of the city. Meanwhile, huge bill boards and navigation boards were also blown away ensuring both sides of many roads, like the road from AG square to city airport, is choked. One side of the Capital Hospital was also closed down as trees fell and blocked the entrance of the city hospital.
The navigation boards near AG square, Governor House and many areas were seen smashed to the ground while many boundary walls in the city collapsed either with the impact of cyclonic storm or with the big trunks of trees falling on them.
With the higher levels of devastation, the electricity and water crisis started affecting the citizens and it seems to be a Herculean task for the district administration to ensure all the basic civic infrastructure and essential services recovered as soon as possible.
The city, Friday, saw complete shutdown of commercial services. Hardly any shop, mall or commercial establishment were open for the public. Major damages seemed to be in places where there were slums and kuccha houses.
The areas where the BMC teams had reached are MLA Colony, Samant Vihar, Paika Nagar, Raj Bhawan Colony and others. However, many areas like Nayapalli, Baramunda, Khandagiri, Sahid Nagar, Rasulgarh and Hanspal could not get any help from the rescue teams and relief centres. People were clearing the roads on their own.
Earlier, many people from different parts of the city, especially from slums, were rescued who were put in the shelter homes here. More than 130 cyclone shelters were opened in the city. Odisha Patita Udhar Samiti with the help of BMC evacuated and rescued more than 100 homeless people from the railway station and roads to Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) in Ganganagar. Matrumayee Priyadarshini of OPUS said we have sheltered homeless people to our Ganganagar shelter home and shifted mentally-challenged people to Unit-II Girl High School where our staffers are looking after them.
Students of Utkal University and Rama Devi Women’s University also suffered severely because of heavy rain. Many hostels faced water logging due to torrential rain. Sriram Singh Rattan, a student of Gopabandhu Hostel, said, “I was asleep and when I woke up I found water inside the room. Rain water also entered other rooms of the hostel. Likewise, Madhusmita Hansdah, an inmate of IG Hostel in Rama Devi University, said that there was a blackout throughout the day. We don’t know when the current will be restored.
City parks which used to be beautiful places for the denizens were ravaged by the cyclonic storm as most of the tress was either broken or uprooted. It is learnt that many parks like Jayadv Vatika, IG Park, Biju Patnaik Park will take more than one month to be restored for public use.
PNN