Manas Dasgupta
AHMEDABAD, May 18: Gujarat hit by one of the severest cyclonic storms in the last 30 years, still managed to escape from major human casualties, thanks to the massive preparatory measures taken by the state government after the cyclone warning was sounded.
The chief minister Vijay Rupani after reviewing the situation on Tuesday morning with his officials said three persons were killed in the storm-related incidents including wall collapse in the worst-hit districts of Amreli, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. The police, however, later said an elderly woman was killed in Patan due to fall of an electricity pole on her in the storm on Monday evening.
“Thanks to the preparatory works carried out by the administration in the last three days ever since Gujarat was alerted about the impending storm, we succeeded in averting major human losses,” Rupani said while lamenting the loss of three human lives. “Our aim was zero human loss and minimum damages to public and private property and we have by and large succeeded in achieving the goal,” Rupani said.
The additional chief secretary Pankaj Kumar, who was monitoring the movement of Tauktae which hit Gujarat coast near Diu at a velocity of over 185 kilometres per hour on Monday night, said the storm was located around 210 kms from Ahmedabad in the Saurashtra region and moving in the north north-westerly direction at a much diminished speed of about eight kms per hour. He said under its impact the rainfall would continue almost all over the state throughout the day on Tuesday.
“The system is expected to weaken into the ‘Cyclonic Storm’ by afternoon hours of Tuesday and further weaken into a depression by the end of the day,” a senior Met official said.
The storm left a trail of destruction on the coastal areas of the state with Gir-Somnath, Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar districts bearing the main brunt. Several areas in the coastal regions of Gujarat plunged into darkness on Monday night due to power outage, while a large number of trees, electric poles and mobile towers got uprooted amid the high speed winds.
Temporary structures were also destroyed in the strong wind, while heavy rainfall in the affected regions caused flooding and tree falls led to blocked roads.
Army personnel and other rescue teams immediately swung into action to clear the roads by removing trees and poles, and restoring damaged structures.
According to preliminary estimates, more than 16,500 hutments were destroyed or damaged, at least 40,000 trees and over 1,100 electric poles were uprooted, nearly 200 roads were damaged and nearly 2,500 villages in the coastal areas lost power supply.
Rupani, however, claimed that by morning itself power supply had been restored to over 800 villages and work was on to re-connect he remaining villages while more than 40 motorable roads had already been restored for normal traffic.
Rupani said none of the 1,400 odd Covid-19 designated hospitals in the state suffered any damage or cause problems for the patients because of the precautionary measures taken in advance including installing generator sets and stocking liquid oxygen to avert any shortfall. He said 16 hospitals in various districts lost regular power supply but hospital activities continued normally with DG sets without causing any inconvenience to the patients and staff.
Nearly 190 talukas out of the 250 odd talukas in the state received rainfall under the impact of Tauktae since Monday night with 35 talukas in Amreli and Gir Somnath districts being the worst hit having received more 125 to over 200 m.m. rainfall overnight causing heavy destruction to the standing crops.
The worst-hit would be the mango, coconut and paddy crops in the storm and consequent heavy rainfall. Junagadh and Gir Somnath districts being known for the delicious “kesar” mangoes, suffered heavy damages in the storm while a large number of coconut trees along the entire 1,000 kms long coastal belt from Somnath to Bhavnagar were uprooted as the storm hit the Gujarat coast.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the chief ministers of affected states – Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan – and administrators of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli – to review the situation and offer help from the centre.
Apart from the Maharashtra deaths, another eight people died in Karnataka as Tauktae brushed past the southern state over the weekend. State officials said over 120 villages in seven coastal districts were affected. Seven people also died in Kerala and nearly 1,500 houses were damaged, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted late Monday.
