Amravati. Severe cyclonic storm 'Murasu' wreaked havoc in coastal Andhra Pradesh early Tuesday morning with thousands of trees uprooted, hundreds of electric poles and fishermen's boats damaged. Heavy rains and strong winds have caused huge damage to crops in many districts including Bapatla and Prakasam and many areas have been submerged in water. Krishnamma, a fisherman from Kothapatnam in Prakasam district, told PTI, “In the last 14 years we have not seen such a dangerous cyclone.
400 families were evacuated to safe places
The government helped us a lot and evacuated about 400 families of the village to safe places. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team also helped us in taking us to safe places. He said that now they will have to go and see what is the condition of their boats. Mangamma, another local resident, said that his house was destroyed during the last cyclone, but this time the government evacuated him to a safe place before the cyclone hit the coast.
Someone's boat broke, someone's house was saved.
“In the last cyclone, I lost my house and my family was forced to move on the road,” he said. This time the government evacuated us to a safe place even before the cyclone hit the coast. However, one of my three boats has been completely destroyed. Fishing is our means of livelihood. Due to the impact of the cyclone, thousands of trees were uprooted and hundreds of electric poles were broken. Apart from this, many areas have been submerged. Due to heavy rains and strong winds, it became difficult to see far on the roads, due to which vehicles got stuck on the national highways and caused a lot of trouble to the drivers.
Vehicles stuck on highway, traffic affected
Traffic was disrupted due to bad weather and passengers were stranded at many places. According to the weather department, severe cyclonic storm 'Murasu' crossed the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Narasapur near Ongole between 3.30 am and 5.30 am on Tuesday. During this period the wind speed was 100 to 120 kilometers per hour.
The cyclone passed the coast between 3:30 am and 5:30 am
According to the weather department, the severe cyclonic storm 'Murasu' crossed the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Narasapur near Ongole between 3:30 am and 5:30 am on Tuesday. Light to moderate rain is expected in most areas of coastal Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. At the same time, there may be heavy to extremely heavy rain at some places and very heavy rain at isolated places.